“Self-disclosure has been redefined online. In Web 2.0, it’s led to blogs and Tweets, Facebook and instant messenger, each developed to help users share the inane minutiae of their lives with others.
But another kind of site has evolved — a type meant not to broadcast your life to others but to chart it for yourself, on password-protected sites accessible only to the user. A life examined to the point that Socrates himself might say, “Guys, that’s enough.” [...]
The Internet brims with sites that track just about every task that you perform on a given day (eating, sleeping, exercising) as well as the things your body does without direction (pumping blood, producing glucose, gaining weight).
Some of the seemingly goofier sites have practical purposes: RescueTime was meant to increase time-management skills among business types, MyMonthlyCycles was developed for women trying to conceive, and Basecamp helps colleagues complete joint projects remotely. But dedicated trackers can repurpose these sites for their own self-study — or use them as inspiration for their own, more intricate tools.”