The heart of everyday analytics: emotional, material and practical extensions in self-tracking market

Abstract

As a result of digital and mobile technology, various kinds of monitoring practices are moving back and forth knowledge hierarchies. The analytics of bodily and mental functions is no longer the privileged domain of professionals. This essay focuses on the ways in which everyday analytics, heart-rate monitoring in particular, becomes embedded and normalized in daily practices and by doing so, paves the way for new market developments. The discussion contributes to the markets-as-practice approach that treats markets as outcomes of processes in which marketable devices are both shaped by, and shape, practices in the market itself. By relying on practice theory, the essay traces historical developments and identifies domain extensions in self-tracking. Everyday analytics progresses with the aid of new devices; however, these are only successful in moving and recruiting consumers if they promote emotional and practical engagements that generate conditions for current and renewed monitoring practices.