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Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad.

Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics.

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Analysis: The Quantified Self: Can Life Be Measured?

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The Quantified Self: Can Life Be Measured?

10/06/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Analysis, The Quantified Self: Can Life Be Measured?

Life-logging and other obsessions of the nascent 'quantified self' movement explored.

The 'quantified self' movement promises that life-logging and data-tracking can make us smarter. Frances Stonor Saunders asks whether by measuring what we do we miss who we are.

Self knowledge through numbers is the motto of the "quantified self" movement. Calories consumed, energy expended, work done, places visited or how you feel. By recording the data of your daily life online, the life-loggers claim, you get to know who you really are.

So far this type of self-tracking is the obsession of a geeky minority. But through our smartphones and social networking sites more and more of us being drawn into this world by stealth. Frances Stonor Saunders asks what it means for our ideas about privacy and sense of self.

Producer: Fiona Leach.

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The Quantified Self: Can Life Be Measured?

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