Monitoramento, Aplicativos, Tecnologias Digitais, Saúde.
Name: ALEXANDRA SANTOS PAULO ALBERGARIA
Publication date: 13/02/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANA PAULA FREGNANI COLOMBI | Examinador Interno |
| GUSTAVO MOURA DE CAVALCANTI MELLO | Presidente |
| HENRIQUE PEREIRA BRAGA | Examinador Externo |
| LUIS HENRIQUE DO NASCIMENTO GONÇALVES | Examinador Externo |
Summary: This dissertation examines self-tracking as practiced through wearable digital devices and mobile apps that monitor health-related metrics such as heart rate and step count. Its aim is to explore and bring into focus some of the key dimensions that shape this phenomenon. The first chapter lays out some of the foundations of self-tracking, drawing on the Quantified Self
movement, transhumanism, and biohacking. These movements are grounded in the belief that science and technology can be used to reshape both body and mind in the pursuit of human enhancement—as if existence itself were something to be optimized like a commodity. This chapter also argues that self-tracking can be understood as a form of discipline, insofar as it
encourages users to cultivate the very skills increasingly demanded by the labor market. The second chapter approaches self-tracking through a close analysis of how the Strava and GymRats apps operate in practice. These platforms draw on sport to build digital environments that mirror the structure of social media, with the sharing of data generated through self -tracking
at their core. Within them, pseudo-communities take shape, structured by image-mediated relations characteristic of the society of the spectacle described by Guy Debord as early as the 1960s. The analysis suggests that self-tracking is driven, in part, by a desire to make visible one’s efforts toward what is understood as a healthy life. In this sense, the user steps onto a digital stage, presenting their performance before an audience with whom they compete for recognition. Finally, the third chapter turns to contemporary capitalism, highlighting some of its defining features that have enabled the expansion and entrenchment of the digital technologies essential to self-tracking in the twenty-first century.
