Taming bodies, alluring affects

While in pre-digital times, the human body had been invested with a disciplinary instrumentality that often produced resistance and struggle on the part of the subject, here instrumentality and discipline become, I like to suggest, soft. The diffusion of self-tracking devices has invested the human body working through desire, the desire to perform, to fit, to be update and responsive, the desire to confront oneself with others in what appears a free, liberated market for those who can. Individualization and disenchantment have thus proceeded hands in hand with the development of such technologies which are able to instruct the consumer on how to create spontaneity, boost fun, produce collective effervescence. They are in a way the technical incarnation of a sociological eye which has long told us that we are first and foremost moldable, the result of our we organize practice, structures, institutions and, indeed, material and symbolic devices. Deborah Lupton, works through the many facets of self-tracing technologies by offering a plethora of examples which are often quite nuanced and detailed. A very timely book, addressing a fascinating and ever-changing phenomena initially driven by companies such Amazon, Apple, Samsung e Google, The Quantified Self (Lupton 2016) reads well and allows the reader to navigate in a complex ever-changing field. The growing trend towards self-monitoring or self-tracking through technological means are often directly attached to the individual body or accompanying the daily round of the subject and create a space to start thinking of the human body in ways that cast doubt on how we have long considered its borders, neutrality and spontaneity. Such devices indeed extend the body and our consciousness, guiding both in precise directions. Simultaneously they allow for both detailed quantification of experiences and performances which before required an often intense relation with a third party - typically an human expert such as trainer or doctor. They also guide the way personal performances, qualities and experiences are become visible and are reported to our own consciousness. Finally they typically imply the sharing of the ensuing data via social media and online communities.