Quantified Construction of Self
Yulia A. Stepanchuk · 2017
Modern society is a society underpinned by an unprecedented amount of data. Among these, personal data have a special meaning and significance. Quantified computer-assisted collection and processing of personal data increasingly provide us with our most basic tools for self-understanding, self-representation and self-determination. Over the course of Western history, external tools used in the construction of self were traditionally based on written and printed texts. This textual-based technology is giving way to a number-based approach. In this article, the author explores the general philosophical, social and cultural aspects of this transformation. Starting with the idea that dominant technology always provides people with the most widespread tools for the construction of self, this paper describes the paradoxes and the conundrums of the quantified data-driven technologies of the self.