We produce a ridiculous amount of data every day. Because we share the shit out of our lives. We always did, no we do it online, in social and not so social networks. What we share defines who we are – and therefore is a crucial part of our performance in life. Look how I perform at my dinning. Look how I perform at my media consumption. We take pictures of our food, we tweet about our favorite TV shows. Post it, or it didn’t happen. So, in order to better compete among one another, we started to track everything we do. We became quantified me’s that were able to measure each step we take, each crunch we make, each retweet we get.
With more sophisticated algorithms and tools, this will consequently lead to a constant self optimization (something described as Hyper Individualization by Richard Nichols in a report issued in June). We will be able to professionalize everything we do with the help of digital tools that we carry around with us. We’ll make better financial decisions. Save more money on our holidays. Find what we are looking for more quickly. More efficiency for our lives.
Ultimately, the mere measurement and collection of data won’t be enough. It will become a hassle and pointless – unless the data helps us to achieve something. It’s the logical step in a journey from no data at all, to too much information, to the right information in the right context (described in a Trend report from Ryan Garner for the GfK).
The Quantified Me’s will turn into Qualified Me’s.
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