What Happened to the Quantified Self Movement?
The Quantified Self movement started as a small gathering of tech enthusiasts on a quest for self-discovery, and has evolved into the modern industry of wearable technology that tracks your every move. (Design by Maya Cueva; Image by Teera Konakan/Getty Images)
Before Apple Watches and Oura rings, self-tracking was a hobby for tinkerers. In 2008, WIRED journalists Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly invited about 20 of them to a meetup in Pacifica. It grew into the Quantified Self movement — a worldwide community of people running careful experiments on their own health and habits. In this excerpt from KQED’s Close All Tabs podcast, reporter Gabriela Glueck traces how that DIY subculture went mainstream once tech companies started selling wearables.