Fatism, Self-Monitoring and the Pursuit of Healthiness in the Time of Technological Solutionism

Abstract

Thanks to apps, individuals can measure an immense set of activities and conditions creating huge stocks of personal data. These data can also be shared on social networks. Self-monitoring functions allow individuals to have monitored pathological conditions and to improve life-styles. Many of these apps concern diets. In fact, the turn of the XXI century has witnessed a huge increase of obesity, in rich and in poor countries. Yet, diet apps - even if useful under many respects - can also be considered as examples of an approach which does not consider the influence of inequality and social factors on health. As a consequence, “technological solutionism” is strictly related to the process of medicalization of life and its reductionism.