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What Do You Keep Track Of?
By Avishay Artsy on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
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Next week on Word of Mouth, self-knowledge through numbers. High-tech monitors allow us to record our running speed, caffeine and alcohol intake, heart rate, diet, and sleep patterns. We now use our smartphones to signal our location and tweet what we eat, participate in drug trials and medical studies, and keep track of our finances or menstrual cycles online, and compare that data with others.
Self-tracking is the new obsession, but is this cutting-edge science or good old-fashioned narcissism? You tell us: do you keep track of and record any of your own activities online? What can we learn from all the data we gather, or from the fact that we gather so much of it? Call our listener line at (603) 223-2448, or leave a comment below.
(Photo by size8jeans via Flickr/Creative Commons)
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Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show looks at our fascinating and ever-changing world, and puts the latest ideas under a microscope. Word of Mouth investigates everything from science and technology, to health and the environment, to new trends in popular culture. The show airs Monday through Thursday at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.
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I keep track of my bike rides using a Garmin GPS unit. Using the website Strava.com, I can share my rides--the hills, the pace, even my heart rate--with my friends. And, we can follow the same route on our bikes at different times and compare results. It's fun. If only we could make checkbook balancing this much fun, I'd know what was in my bank account.
Do I think tracking and sharing is a result of a new egoism? No. I think egoism isn't any stronger now than it was before--the internet is just a new platform that's visible to more people. Big egos will find their stage; others can still compare--as obnoxiously or humbly as we wish.