Optimization as a Metaphor in Self-Tracking / Quantified Self and Beyond

• In Event: Becoming Otherwise: STS Inroads into Techniques of the Better Self - I: Potential

Abstract

This paper explores the meaning and analytical scope of the metaphor (Wyatt 2004) of optimization in the context of self-tracking and the quantified self. For a decade now it has been discussed in mass and academic media in terms of self-optimization (e.g. Lupton 2014, Ajana 2017). The techniques of the better self has been referred to in terms of mostly neo-liberally painted self-regulation and self-exploitation. However these studies do not explain what interpretation of the word’s origin „optimum“ they do embody.

Optimization was originally a concept used in applied mathematics, computer science, e.g. within SEO as well as in business administration, e.g. operations research (OR). Increasingly, however, the term has been popularized, and has entered everyday life and refers to a mode of living, as a way of “making the most” of life.

We employ a combination of discourse and text analysis to analyse how the concept of optimization is used in scientific publications of other disciplines and compare these findings to the self-reported understandings of it within our samples of self-tracking interviews between 2012-2018.

We found similarities but also meaningful differences in the usage of „optimization“ While the former are based on systems thinking, the latter refer to the attitude of subjective feelings and personal goals and values in the process of becoming „otherwise“.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the concept of optimization and it’s usage in different scientific disciplines and objects of inquiry.

Authors

• Agnieszka Krzeminska, Leuphana University of Luneburg

• Dorthe Kristensen, University of Southern Denmark