Digital self-tracking, habits and the myth of discontinuance: It doesn’t just ‘stop’

Abstract

Digital self-tracking devices increasingly inhabit everyday landscapes, yet many people abandon self-trackers not long after acquisition. Although research has examined why people discontinue these devices, less explores what actually happens when people unplug. This article addresses this gap by considering the embodied and habitual dimensions of self-tracking and discontinuance. We consider the potential for digital data – and their unanticipated affects – to linger within habitual practices even after the device is abandoned. We draw on the philosophies of Felix Ravaisson and Gilles Deleuze to understand habit as a capacity for change, rather than a performance of sameness. We trace how self-tracking prompts new embodiments that continue to unfold even after people disengage. In decentring the device as our object of attention, we trouble the logic that self-tracking simply ‘stops’ in its absence. This holds implications for theorizing human–digital relations and for how self-tracking health interventions are implemented and evaluated.