Apparently there is some new ‘movement’ amongst the younger sect. It’s called the Quantified Self. I first read about it in Graydon Carter’s Editor’s Letter in the February 2013 Vanity Fair. I’ve been a long subscriber of the magazine and often read what Mr. Carter has to say. The concept fascinated me. Not in the “wow, I want to be a part of that” way but in the “what the hell are they thinking?” way. So I did some research. And what I found validated my initial assumption of what this ‘movement’ is all about.
Basically Quantified Self is all about self-knowledge through self-tracking. You know measuring every frickin’ thing you do with every app available on every electronic device known to man. Quintessentially, it’s self-absorption to the highest degree. Not only do these people measure, record, and preserve their results for posterity, they share with others and actually think society gives a shit about the results. I don’t know about you, but between work, the wife and kids, and everything that comes with those combined, I can barely keep track of the amount of sleep I get or how many times I pee each day. Throw in racking my brain to think of ways to ‘positively buzz’ my book to generate sales and I’m a quantified mess!
But the thing is, I’m doing something that I alone can be accountable for. Not just filling the void of my existence in senseless rituals. Well, I do that, too, but let’s not go there right now.
Carter said it best when he wrote – “The thing is, all that time you spend logging and then curating the quotidian aspects of your daily life is time taken away from actually doing things.”
