Self-tracking isn’t a new thing in itself, as people have been keeping diaries and documenting their thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and various measurements for centuries. Today, self-tracking is of course on a completely different level thanks to wearables and smart software, but it’s safe to say that even this is just the beginning.

The term quantified self is said to have been coined by Wired magazine editors Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly in 2007, and the quantified self movement is described as "a collaboration of users and tool makers who share an interest in self knowledge through self-tracking”. A key idea is "care of the self”, in which the importance of self-knowledge for personal development is emphasized. This involves looking inside oneself and doing self-reflection, with the help of technology and data. Ultimately the goal is to take corrective actions in order to lead a better and healthier life.

Already today a lot of self-tracking and data gathering can be achieved more or less automatically. Just by wearing an Apple Watch and an Oura Ring, you’ll gather a lot of data about your sleep and daily activity. These devices contain sophisticated sensors for monitoring your pulse, body temperature, acceleration, elevation, and positioning (GPS). The Watch can even take an electrocardiogram (ECG), a procedure that not long ago required visiting a medical professional and paying the subsequent bills.

Each new category of wearable and each new iteration of existing wearables bring us some new sensor, be it biometric or something else. It could be anything from measuring blood pressure to determining the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood. Just imagine what all that data could mean in terms of improving your health and diet. It could also be something a bit more unexpected, such as detecting your perspiration levels or measuring blood oxygen levels. Implementing an oximeter is by the way something you could do with ambient light sensors, which are rumored to be part of a future version of Apple’s AirPods.

The point is that we will have more and more sensors that are constantly monitoring us and collecting massive amounts of data. It could even be data about how your brain works, e.g. which regions of your brain are activated and which remain passive.

Without going into a discussion about data privacy and who gets to benefit (or profit) from your data, the question is what we ourselves are going to do with all this auto-tracked data? How many of us are actually going to make changes to our habits just because the data tells us it would be wise? Could we avoid certain problems (even diseases) completely thanks to data-driven actions? At least we should be able to detect many problems much sooner, as we’re no longer dependent solely on annual medical check-ups.

Some people will undoubtedly say that all of this monitoring and data gathering sounds awful and that the risk for abuse is far too great. But tech optimists like myself will say: Bring it on – it’s high time that we understand better how the mind and body works so that we can improve our lives.