Faster, more efficient data collection: Self-optimization against digital overload

Less efficiency increase, more serenity through a more self-determined life? By the way: The followers of the Quantified Self movement do exactly the opposite: More efficiency through self-optimization with technical aids. Another future vision?

Mindfulness vs. Quantified Self

mindfulness, Self love and Work-Life-Balance are currently one of the major trends. Less and more relaxed work, more from life and its social environment, friends and Family have - that's what many wish for People. It is not for nothing that digital detox seminars and silent seminars are booming in the monastery. It almost seems like a counter-reaction to the digital overload that more and more people are complaining about.

And then there is the total opposite: quantified self. Even if the founder of the website QuantifiedSelf.com, the journalist Gary Wolf (who already co-founded Wired Magazine) lives in Berkley, California, next to San Francisco, the nucleus, New York seems to be the secret capital of the Quantified Self followers be:

New York as the stronghold of the Quantified Self

The books on the subject (advertising)

While membership in other cities varies between 80 and 300, there are 650 members in New York. And that fits into the picture: New York is the city in which no jogger would ever pause at the traffic lights (but on the spot weitertrippelt), in the fruit and salad in small portions as fast food is sold.

And it is the metropolis that pays off otherwise by a particularly brisk busyness, which has a noticeable effect on your own pulse rate. I experienced it a few years ago: New York took me along, but after a few days I needed a break.

Gain more knowledge about yourself through data collection

The friends of Quantified Self are now doing the exact opposite: They believe in “Self knowledge through numbers”: They count calories, the times they have run for X kilometers, when they ate how much and even how many people they slept with to have.

For example, it says “Joost Plattel quantifies 67% of his life. His dataset has 40,000 data points.” Aids are computers, Internet and especially smartphones. When I then look at the popularity of self-tracking apps, which you can use to record your sporting activities, for example, it becomes clear that this type of self-optimization is by no means to be scoffed at.

Data collection: step to the perfect person?

Discounts for your success (advertising)!

Ostensibly, it's about collecting data about yourself, as well as that Companys like google do. Gary Wolf is quoted as saying that it is only fair to know as much about yourself as Google or Facebook already do. That sounds harmless, but there is actually more to it, because the self-trackers not only collect their data to keep an overview: They also evaluate this data and compare it with one another.

The social network Daytum helps them with this. As it says on the home page: DAYTUM HELPS YOU COLLECT, CATEGORIZE AND COMMUNICATE YOUR EVERYDAY DATA. The user decide decide which data you want to track and how you want to categorize it. But that's not all: there are also different ones on offer Methods, how you could present these tracking results - for example as a bar graph or pie chart.

Do not confuse cause and effect

This is exactly where things start to get worrying for me. It still makes sense to me that someone should know themselves well and want to understand their own actions as much as possible. Just like some people keep a budget on theirs expenditure lead to not too much Money to spend.

However, one has to ask oneself to what extent this exact knowledge then influences the actions. For example, if I record every time how fast I ran, I don't just do it to know: I just want to get better. This may be an incentive to improve performance. But if I only compulsively concentrate on the results, the real thing happens Objective, Health and improve well-being, quickly fades into the background. It's all about improving the numbers, not about the thing itself.

From "I have more than you!" until depression

This effect is exacerbated when you not only keep the results to yourself, but also share them with others. Of course, you can also give each other tips that might help with self-optimization. But in the end, especially when you compare clearly quantifiable numbers, it's all about one thing: The question "Who has more?" We are already familiar with this competitive mentality from other social groups networks.

Now, the desire to compare yourself to others may be something deeply human. In other words: competition stimulates it Shop. Shine behind numbers klare to stand statements. How useful but who are, is rarely questioned. And many let themselves be put under pressure by the constant comparisons in social networks. It's like that "My house, my car, my boat" commercial: Who's throwing the most parties, has the most friends, or climbs the most 8000m peaks? In the USA, this has already resulted in a new clinical picture, the Facebook-Depression. People are treated who have fewer friends in social networks than others and therefore feel inferior feel.

Self-optimized or externally determined?

It seems to me that if you measure almost your entire life in numbers and release it for comparison, then in the end there is no possibility of retreat if things don't go well. Because no one can be the best or the best at everything. Constant envy and constant stress up to Burnout seems almost inevitably the consequence of this. The self-optimized person is therefore very far away from a self-determined life, because soon he only pant after the compulsion to fulfill the target. What a sad thought!

Self-optimization - that sounds promising, because in this way you can supposedly make the best out of yourself. Ultimately, however, this seemingly perfect human being is the first step into dependency and a life destined for others, in which one lags behind only one ideal. I would rather not experience something like that!

Top books on the subject

Read text as PDF

Acquire this text as a PDF (only for own use without passing it on according to Terms and conditions): Please send us one after purchase eMail with the desired title supportberufebilder.de, we will then send the PDF to you immediately. You can also purchase text series.

4,99€Buy

Advice on success, goal achievement or marketing

You have Ask about career, Recruiting, personal development or increasing reach? Our AIAdviser helps you for 5 euros a month – free for book buyers. We offer special ones for other topics IT services

5,00€ / per month   Book

Book eCourse on Demand

Up to 30 lessons with 4 learning tasks each + final lesson as a PDF download. Please send us one after purchase eMail with the desired title supportberufebilder.de. Alternatively, we would be happy to put your course together for you or offer you a personal, regular one eMail-Course - all further information!

29,99€Buy

Skate eBook as desired

If our store does not offer you your desired topic: We will be happy to put together a book according to your wishes and deliver it in a format of yours Choice. Please sign us after purchase supportberufebilder.de

79,99€Buy