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9781108832809

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'Grinberg's masterful ethnography brings a new perspective to quantified self technologies, exploring how the technology designers' fissured and unstable working conditions inform what designers think should matter when quantifiying. Brimming with new insights, she connects the dots between the designable and the personal in this imminently teachable book.' Ilana Gershon, Rice University 'QS, the translation of self into quantifiable data, is a model for technological optimism. Wearable and sensor-enabled devices promise to optimize humans. Silicon Valley has long pursued this dream. Enthusiasts imagined these objects as the ideal interface between the body and the wider world. Grinberg thoughtfully documents how this nascent social movement morphed into the self-tracking market more than a decade later. She tracks people, practices, and metaphors to reveal a darker story. Unkept promises, entrepreneurial precarity, and emotional labor mark this sector's present reality of this technological sector.' Jan English-Lueck, San José State University 'An incisive look into the making of self-tracking technologies. Grinberg unearths all the hopes, desires, networks, and labor that go into building the tools and startups of the Quantified Self movement. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in metrics, tracking, and digital capitalism.' Angèle Christin, Author of Metrics at Work, Stanford University 'Ethnography of an Interface offers a fresh take on the pressures and contradictions of Quantified Self entrepreneurialism. It insightfully analyzes how digital professionals end up creating the very behaviors and communities they think they are discovering in the world. The book's well-grounded approach and vital findings will be of wide appeal to readers interested in learning how industry-led dynamics perpetuate structural inequities in tech.' Patricia G. Lange, California College of the Arts

Author Information

Yuliya Grinberg holds a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from Columbia University, New York, and specializes in digital culture. Her teaching addresses the social impact of technological innovation, automation, big data, and the future of work. Her writing has been published in top academic journals such as 'Anthropological Quarterly' as well as in popular forums including the Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing (CASTAC) and the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC) blogs.

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