Research on the Connotation and Dimension of Consumers’ Quantified-Self Consciousness

Abstract

Quantified-self practice has penetrated into people’s daily life. Academic circles have begun to study it, but at present, scholars have not raised quantified-self practice to the level of consciousness. In order to explore the structural connotation of quantified-self consciousness and then provide management reference for enterprises offering quantified-self services, this study conducted in-depth interviews with self-trackers with the method of grounded theory. The conceptual model of quantified-self consciousness is formed through step-by-step coding, and the theoretical saturation is tested by reserving original sentences and crawling relevant online comments. The model shows that quantified-self consciousness can be divided into three dimensions: individual thinking, social projection, and data sensitivity.

1. Introduction

The proliferation of wireless networks and mobile devices has led people to use data to manage their lives. More and more people use these technologies and devices to monitor and analyze their daily life and habits, and this change in attitudes and behaviors is particularly prominent in medical and health care [1,2]. The formation of people’s concept and habit of the quantified self, in turn, has led to the prosperity of the quantified-self market. In the first and second quarters of 2021, smartwatch shipments increased by 35% and 27% year-on-year, respectively, with most of the growth coming from smartwatches under USD 100 [3,4]. This splendid growth suggests that the practice of quantifying the self has become more common in the population, and that inexpensive quantified-self tools have lowered the barrier to entry.

Mark Weiser of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) believes that human beings will eventually enter the stage of “Ubiquitous Computing”, that is, we can obtain and process any information at any time and place [5]. In the era of ubiquitous computing, the sources of data accepted by people are not limited to the external environment; on the contrary, people themselves are becoming contributors to the data, because the data is highly integrated with all aspects of people’s lives. This phenomenon changes people’s original cognitive structure, and people begin to examine themselves in the form of data, then a “quantified-self” wave arises at the historic moment. Its appearance marks the beginning of human beings’ self-understanding by using data, and at the same time promotes the awakening of human quantified-self consciousness.

Nowadays, the quantified self has permeated every corner of people’s daily lives. From exercise steps, exercise mileage, exercise duration, and calorie consumption in the field of health, to blood pressure, heart rate, and physiological cycle in the field of physiology; from progress, duration, and efficiency in the field of work and study, to financial revenue and expenditure in the field of finance, and driving records and flight records in the field of transportation, and so on, there are always quantified-self activities that can been noticed.

However, the significance of the “quantified-self” activities is not only a simple assistant of self-life, but to know the self from self-tracking and raise the quantified self to the height of cognition. This is a deep summary of the nature of the quantified self by the quantified-self research institute [6], and it is also the declaration of the quantified-self movement [7]. More and more people have developed a new consciousness in these activities, such as “I used to think that my health was the doctors’ responsibility, but now I seen it as my own responsibility, and I have the appropriate tools to make myself healthy” [8].

Apparently, people have generated quantified-self consciousness in the action of quantifying themselves, which further dominates the quantifying action. In the marketing environment, consumer quantified-self consciousness is the premise of making rational consumption choices, and this role is particularly prominent in the current situation where quantified-self tools are dominated by the mobile Internet.

Previous studies have noted the motivation and factors of users to quantify selves [9,10,11], the impact of the quantified self on users’ physical, psychological, and even social aspects [12,13,14,15], and put forward improvement suggestions for self-tracking tools [16,17], or raised the more specific issues of using the quantified self as a case study [18]. However, previous studies have paid more attention to the behavior phenomenon of the quantified self, and there have been few in-depth studies on the nature and construction of quantified-self consciousness. In addition, how can enterprises guide consumers so that consumers can develop quantified-self consciousness? Aiming at the quantified-self consciousness of consumers, how can enterprises conduct marketing activities more effectively? The above questions need to be answered urgently.

Therefore, the study of the nature and construction of quantified-self consciousness is of great significance, not only for consumers to know themselves deeply, but also for enterprises to carry out precision marketing. On the basis of a literature review, this study will explore the structural connotation of quantified-self consciousness through grounded theory, in order to help consumers form a profound quantified-self consciousness and provide service to enterprises that can guide consumers to quantify themselves scientifically and rationally and then conduct marketing activities and services successfully.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Quantified-Self

The quantified self, which is also named self-tracking, refers to the real-time measurement and recording of human-related data using a range of modern technological means. Kelly and Wolf have noticed that modern technology has changed people’s lives. Mobile terminals, wearable devices, and data storage devices help people record data that are usually difficult to observe, discover people’s potential connections with time and space, and change people’s self-consciousness [19]. In a 2007 article in the magazine Wired, the pair proposed the concept of “quantified-self” to describe this behavior. Since then, there has been a vigorous quantified-self movement around the world, and scholars have begun to pay attention to this movement at the same time. Alexander and others deepened the definition of the quantified self to capture real events with machine equipment and digitized them into readable data to meet human needs or assist humans and computers in decision making, evaluation, and comparison [20]. Starting from the object of the quantified self, Dijk and Ijsselsteijn noticed that the quantification of human events by technology is not limited to individuals but should be extended to the whole society, and paid attention to the role of the quantified self in promoting social connections [15]. On the basis of noticing the role of the quantified self in promoting social connections, Lupton divided quantified-self practice into five types: private, communal, pushed, imposed, and exploited [21].

The scope of self-quantification is extremely wide. Except for the practice of the quantified self by individuals who suffer from diseases or are extremely data-obsessed, many fields such as education, insurance, business, energy, and urban planning and management require individuals’ data [22]. For example, Melanie found that the quantified self can promote the transformation of traditional health-care services to new patient-centered health services [23]; Ben found that quantified-self practice in games, such as victory or mortality, would change the experience and emotional feelings of game users [24]; Liu et al. found that by quantifying their own learning practices, quantified-self practice helped learners to promote educational informatization and form a student-centered educational philosophy [25]. From the perspective of individual cognitive differences, scholars Li and Zhang deeply studied the psychological mechanism of the effect of the quantified self on consumers’ activity participation behavior [26]. Yang (2020) and other scholars focused on the social attributes of quantified-self data and found that bicycle users can perceive the existence of competitors through competitor data-sharing while riding and can enhance the intrinsic motivation of cycling [27].

To sum up, the existing research has made a positive contribution to the exploration of the quantified self, especially in nature and function. However, the research is mostly limited to the practice of the quantified self and has not risen to the height of consciousness.

2.2. Consciousness

The related research on consciousness has existed for a long time, and many scholars have carried out research from the perspectives of psychology, philosophy, physiology, etc. However, they have not yet been able to form a generally accepted definition of consciousness. Although the problem of how to define consciousness has been troubling people for a long time—Daniel even believes that consciousness itself is an illusion—the research on it can still play an important role in predicting and explaining human behavior [28]. The materialist philosopher Dietzgen proposed in his book The Nature of Human Brain Activities that consciousness cannot be separated from experience and the material world; otherwise, it will become fantasy, and matter is the basis of consciousness [29]. Christof Koch studied the source of consciousness from the complex structure of the human brain [30].

The definition of consciousness has always been a difficult problem for academic circles, and with the increase in externality, the difficulty of determining the existence and characteristics of consciousness has also increased exponentially [31]. However, this does not prevent people from studying the internal structure and function of consciousness. Wilhelm, the founder of scientific psychology, divided the internal structure of consciousness into three parts: cognition, emotion, and will [32].

It is widely recognized that consciousness is not only a reflection of the objective world, but also the subjective feelings of the individuals, and at the same time, it can guide people to transform the objective world. To sum up, although the study of consciousness is difficult, and scholars have not reached a consensus on the definition of consciousness so far, the view that consciousness comes from the objective world and that it plays a guiding role in human behavior has been generally accepted within academic circles.

In the field of marketing, consumer consciousness guides consumer behavior, and only by understanding the cognitive process of consumers can their behavior be explained [33]. Rombach and others found that the moral awareness of German cut-flower consumers’ concern about labor and the environment affected their attention to fair trade as an attribute of cut flowers, which further affected their purchasing behavior [34]. Graham-Rowe [35] and Ju [36] explored the psychological obstacles of British and South Korean consumers to the adoption of electric vehicles, respectively. Kautish and others emphasized to pay attention to the influence of consumers’ values and inner consciousness on their external reactions [37]. It can be seen that the management academia has realized the important basis for consumer consciousness to drive their behavior.

Through the above literature review, this study found that, at present, the academic circles mainly focused on quantified-self practice but do not raise it to the level of consciousness and carry out research on quantified-self consciousness. Quantified-self consciousness, as a cognitive form of quantified-self practice, is the basis for driving quantified-self behavior. Therefore, based on grounded theory, this study has important theoretical and management significance to explore the connotations and dimensions of quantified-self consciousness.

3. Research Methods

Grounded theory is a qualitative research method proposed by Glaser and Strauss to construct theories from empirical data [38]. This is a bottom-up method to establish substantive theories, that is, to find the core concepts that reflect social phenomena on the basis of systematic data-collection, and then construct relevant theories through the connections between these concepts [39]. The method used in this study for grounded theory research is semi-structured interview, which requires the researcher to have a face-to-face and in-depth dialogue with the interviewees based on a topic (but without fixed questions and answers) to gather their real and objective thoughts. The researcher can control the direction at the beginning of the conversation. However, as the conversation progresses, the interviewee can express their inner thoughts more freely [40], thus providing a large amount of raw data for researchers. When data collection begins, researchers also begin preliminary conceptualization analysis. When the results of the preliminary analysis show that no new concepts are generated, it can be considered that theoretical saturation has been reached, and the researcher stops the data collection [41].

The reasons for adopting grounded theory in this study are as follows: first, grounded theory is suitable for the definition of new concepts. So far, the academic circle has not been involved in the research on quantified-self consciousness, and the relevant research is mainly focused on quantified-self practice or self-consciousness. Although it can provide some reference for this study, it still cannot become the theoretical basis of quantified-self consciousness. Second, the field survey found that consumers’ understanding of quantified-self consciousness varies.

In view of this, this study adopts the grounded theory method to deeply explore people’s understanding of quantified-self consciousness in the form of interviews. First, the original data about quantified-self consciousness are obtained from interviews, and the original interview materials are encoded and analyzed. Gradually, categories are extracted and the logical relationship between categories is explored, and a conceptual framework of quantified-self consciousness is built.

In this study, the sample is selected according to the principle of theoretical sampling. In order to facilitate the later coding work, the samples are selected according to the following two principles:

• Having the experience of recording their own events and digitizing them into readable data by various technical means. This kind of experience should be relatively rich. The main types of this group are fitness enthusiasts, patients, students, Internet practitioners who present their study or work in a quantified form, and other types of self-trackers.
• In view of the prevalence of quantified-self practice among young people, the sample should focus on young people.

According to the above principles, the researcher asked interviewees about their background prior to the conversation to ensure they had engaged in at least one quantified-self activity. The study focused on selecting college students (including masters and doctoral students) as interview subjects, taking into account other groups at the same time. Finally, a total of 18 subjects were selected as interview samples [41] and numbered A1, A2, A3, …, A18, including 10 males (55.56%) and 8 females (44.44%). The basic information of interviewees is shown in

Table 1. Basic information of interviewees.

Basic Information	Classification	Numbers	Percentage
Sex	Male	10	55.56%
	Female	8	44.44%
Age	19–10	1	5.56%
	20–29	13	72.22%
	30–39	3	16.67%
	40–49	1	5.56%
Education Level	College degree	1	5.56%
	Undergraduate	9	50%
	Master	8	44.44%
Occupation	Fitness enthusiasts	6	33.33%
	Patients	2	11.11%
	Students	4	22.22%
	Internet practitioners	2	11.11%
	Other self-trackers	4	22.22%

. Participants were mostly between 18 and 25 years old, generally relatively young; all have a college degree or above and have the ability to understand the meaning of the topic and express their own ideas. Professions include students, teachers, Internet practitioners, freelancers, etc.; geographical coverage includes Nanchang, Yichun, Wuhan, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Harbin, Jining, Changsha, Xiamen, etc.

The interview data of A1–A15 were used to encode and construct the theoretical model, and the interview data of A16–A18 were reserved for the theoretical saturation of the model.

This study takes the method of semi-structured interviews, with progressive questions based on the outline, observing the interviewees’ reactions at the same time, helping the interviewees to recall the details that are easy to be forgotten, and striving to make the interviewees express their inner feelings, that is, the most authentic and comprehensive understanding of quantified-self consciousness. Before the formal interview, this study designed an initial outline based on the existing literature, and conducted a pre-interview with some of the interviewees on this basis.

In the process of the pre-interview, this study found the deficiency of the initial outline in time and made adjustments to form the final outline. The outline mainly includes: the basic information of the interviewees, what types of quantified-self practice they have participated in, the reasons for participating in quantified-self practice, and what kind of reflection they have made in participating in quantified-self practice.

In response to the call in China to normalize epidemic prevention and reduce the flow of people, some of the interviews took the form of online interviews. The interview time of each interviewee was more than 30 min, and the entire process of the interview was recorded. After the interview with a single interviewee, the researchers strictly compared the original materials of the recording and transcribed the recording to the text to ensure that there were no errors in the process. The interview recordings of 18 interviewees finally formed a text material of about 100,000 words, and the coding work was carried out on the basis of this text.

4. Step-by-Step Coding

Researchers start coding on the basis of collected primary data, which is a fundamental process for developing theory [42]. Coding refers to the process of separating original data into initial concepts, filtering and aggregating initial concepts to obtain categories, and finally analyzing the relationship between categories and topics [43,44]. It mainly includes three processes: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding.

4.1. Open Coding

Open coding is a process in which researchers maintain an objective and neutral attitude, extract, generalize, and induce concepts from the original data, naming the emerging concepts, and categorizing the concepts. This process requires the researcher to have a deep understanding of the interviewees’ representations [45], and to analyze the data carefully without omitting valuable information. Concepts can be named either from the respondents’ original sentences or from the researchers’ generalizations of the original data [46]. After screening the text materials, this study deleted sentences irrelevant to the research content, and finally retained 274 valid sentences, which were numbered as A1-1, A1-2, A1-3, etc., according to the order in which the sentences appeared in narration of the A1–A15 interviewees. After conceptualizing the original statement, 14 initial concepts and 7 initial categories are formed, as shown in

Table 2. Open coding result table.

Original Statement	Initial Concept	Concept Connotation	Categorization
A2-7 I once stopped menstruating for a long time. When I went to see a doctor, the doctor asked me when my last menstruation period was. But I couldn’t remember it clearly. Later, I recorded my menstruation period every month and found it very abnormal. A8-6 I will see which type of music I listen to more, so that I know which kind of music I am interested in is.	Objective understanding	An individual’s understanding of the current objective reality related to the self	Rational cognition
A1-1 Monitoring data allows me to judge that whether I am exercising at the healthiest heart rate. The heart rate during exercise is divided into several stages. I need to use the data to the stage I am in when exercising, so that the exercise will be more effective. A3-4 I spend money too fast after I come to college, so I have to make a clear financial expenditure plan (through keep accounts) to avoid not have enough money to support myself at the end of each month.	Value judgment	Individual’s judgment and prediction of the value that quantified-self behavior brings to the individual.
A6-1 I feels myself a little fat and not as handsome as before. And I need to monitor myself to lose weight to make myself more handsome. A8-5 I didn’t know where my money was spent before I kept accounts. I want to change my habit of spending money indiscriminately and learn to spend rationally.	Positive spirit	Individual’s emotional pursuit of positive self	Emotional pursuit
A8-11 The entertainment APP of the smart phone is a terrible thing, and its intelligent recommendation mechanism will make it impossible for me to leave my phone, so I will try my best to control the time I spend on my phone.	Restraint consciousness	Individual’s prevention and restraint of negative self
A7-9 I used to turn on my cell phone to record my own speed, time when I was walking. A12-9 After the popularity of mobile phones, it is easy to develop my own habits to monitor myself, and I has been insisting.	Thinking set	A relatively stable way of thinking that already exists in the mind of the individual	Thinking inertia
A14-5 I don’t deliberately record my own data, but I know a place where I can check my own data and I want to see it for myself. A13-4 Since (recording tools) has given me this opportunity, I naturally want to take a look at the data about myself and see what situation I am in.	Sequential thinking	Individuals think about problems step by step according to the conventional way of things.
A11-18 The study app says that there is a activity that pay tuition first, then I should clock in studying every day, and then would be returned the fee. I have participated in and completed this kind of activity twice.	Incentive assimilation	External incentives guide individuals to bring the quantified-self into the existing cognitive structure	Internalization of incentives and force
A6-3 Going to the hospital to check my own physical indicators is mandatory by the doctor, and I have to go to the hospital to check once a month.	Forced adaptation	When there is a certain conflict between the external forced oppression and the existing cognitive structure of the individual, it causes the change of the cognitive structure of the individual
A3-1 All of my family works in the hospital, so I will be more concerned about the physical data. I have a regular physical examination every year, and I usually do some small body data monitoring for myself, then send it to my parents to see. A14-20 People around me have the habit of recording their own consumption, which also has a certain influence on me. At the beginning, I was influenced by them, and then look at my spending record.	Circle atmosphere	When the circle of the individual has a strong quantified-self atmosphere, this atmosphere will influence the individual’s cognitive structure	Ambient infection
A1-10 I have taken exercise weight loss classes before, and the teacher suggested measuring my heart rate with wristband and tell us what heart rate range is healthy during exercise. A3-7 My girlfriend says I am a little fat, so I will keep exercising and check my weight through the data to see if I have lost a little bit of weight every day.	Important role of others	People who have an important influence on the individual in the social environment can change the cognitive structure of the individual
A3-11 I am an engineering student, so seeing the numbers gives me a very sober feeling. It makes me feel very interested to look at some data related to my condition every day.	Data immersion	Quantifying the pleasure that self-data brings to individuals participating in this activity	Data utility
A2-22 Recording menstruation is not a very painstaking task. It only needs to be recorded once a month, and it is not difficult, but necessary for my health. Generally speaking, it is easy and necessary. A9-3 Physiological data can show a fitness situation in recent days, to see if it has changed in a good or bad way. It makes me feel more scientific and more real. A11-10 Usually I also know my own behavior, but the content that the data presents will be more intuitive, and make me grasp of my own behavior mpre accurately.	Efficacy perception	Individual conjecture and judgment on the ability of quantified-self data to meet their own needs
A5-3 I have to record my working hours, including how long it takes to do a task, when it starts and when it ends, how long I work for the whole month, and how many kilometers I run every day and what range my weight is maintained. I will care about them and count these data myself.	Data insight	Individual insight into data	Data literacy
A9-8 Last week I was 73.5 kg, this week my weight reduced to 73 kg. So I would analyze whether I eat too little recently, or whether I have not been properly allocated when exercising and have done too much aerobic exercise. Then I would adjust my training schedule. A11-3 I will see how many steps I take today. If I walk few hundred steps a day, it is equivalent to no moving. But if I walk more than 5000 steps a day, it seems that I’m healthy.	Data meaning	The ability of an individual to think about and analyze data and relate it to reality

.

4.2. Axial Coding

On the basis of the completion of the open coding work, the axial coding is to explore the relationship between the original categories which were originally separated from each other, and construct the relationship between them, and extract a higher-order main category from the initial category [45]. This study abstracts and summarizes the seven initial categories formed by open coding, and finally forms three main categories, as shown in

Table 3. Axial coding result table.

Main Category	Categorization	Category Connotation
Individual thinking	Rational cognition	Individual thinking refers to the individual’s subjective understanding of the quantified self, the judgment of the individual meaning, the emotional pursuit of the idealized self, and the mechanical adaptation to the quantified self from the thinking level. For the individual has the idea of realizing the rational purpose and emotional demand, he will use the way of quantitative tracking of self behavior to achieve the goal. Or because the individual has formed the psychological preparation for quantifying self-behavior. After that, out of the inertia of thinking, the individual will continue to follow the idea of quantitative tracking of their behaviors.
	Emotional pursuit
	Thinking inertia
Social projection	Internalization of incentives and force	Social projection refers to the psychological infection of social forces such as guidance, norms, groups, and the relationship between individuals and others on individual participation in quantified-self behavior. When there are external forces to induce the individual with interests, put pressure on them, or the circle of the individual has a strong atmosphere of self-tracking, and important others have expectations of the individual, it will infect their psychology of the individual, and he would also participate in quantified-self activities.
	Ambient infection
Data sensitivity	Data utility	Data sensitivity refers to the utility of data at the thinking level and the individual’s ability to identify and understand self-tracking data. For the data can bring pleasure to the individual or the individual perceives the various functions of the self-tracking data, or the individual has the ability to establish the relationship between the self-tracking data and their own situation, and to identify the meaning contained in the self-tracking data, it will guide the their quantified-self behavior.
	Data literacy

.

4.3. Selective Coding

In the selective coding stage, it is necessary to analyze each main category and compare the relationship between the core category and the main category deeply to make the relationship between them clearer and more specific [47], so as to reveal the internal conceptual model of quantified-self consciousness, that is, the path relationship from the core category to the main category and the initial category. The selective coding result is shown in Figure 1.

4.4. Theoretical Saturation Test

After the selective coding has formed the conceptual model of quantified-self consciousness, this study also needs to test the theoretical saturation of the model to make sure that no new concepts are generated. In this study, the reserved interview data of A16–A18 are encoded and classified in the same way as the previous steps.

In order to supplement the data of theoretical saturation test, this study used Octopus Collector to climb a fitness Microblog posted by a fashion blogger on 3 December 2020, with a total of 300 comments numbered B1–B300 as of 12 January 2021; a wearable device testing Microblog posted by a fitness blogger on 14 December 2020, with a total of 156 comments numbered C1–C156 as of 15 January 2021; an exercise punching Microblog posted by a beauty blogger on 14 December with a total of 119 comments numbered D1–D119 as of 21 January 2021. Some of the comments are shown in Figure 2, Figure 3 and Figure 4. Finally, 575 comments were crawled. The three bloggers have 7.8 million, 2.13 million, and 2.58 million Microblog followers, respectively, and all of them have been certified by Microblog well-known bloggers.

This study lists some interview data and Microblog comments as examples to verify the theoretical saturation:

A18-5 “Although I think I know what I like, big data can’t fool anyone. Sometimes I think something is not very good and I don’t want to admit that I like it, but big data will tell me that I really look at these things every day” and C18 “I also want to have a glow bracelet so that I can know my real-time heart rate” can be classified as rational cognition, which is consistent with the path of “individual thinking → rational cognition” in Figure 1.

A16-3 “When I browse on cell phone, I will use the function of limited time for fear that I will be fascinated”. This sentence can be classified as emotional pursuit, which is consistent with the path of “individual thinking → emotional pursuit” in Figure 1.

A18-4 “I think it is a natural habit to monitor myself. Since the device can help me record it, I would let it keep recording like this” and D57 “I found that I forgot to clock in exercising last night. I did 1100 rope skipping (warm-up stretch), 5 min thin arms seven days thin belly, and 30 min Pamela Dance” can be classified as thinking inertia, which is consistent with the path of “individual thinking → thinking inertia” in Figure 1.

A16-11 “When I was a freshman, I memorized words and read English articles every day, because merchants stipulated that I could refund tuition fees and even get more money if I studied every day” and A17-7 “I have a WeChat group where I clock in studying one English sentence a day. There are very powerful teachers in this group. And I would be cleared out of the group if I didn’t clock in for a day, but I don’t want to be cleared out” can be classified as internalization of incentives and force. This statement is consistent with the path of “social projection → Internalization of incentives and force”.

A16-7 “When I fall in love, I will record my loving days, which can be kept as a souvenir in the future” and B126 “I’m going to train, too. The Spring Festival is coming soon, and my dear is coming back” can be classified as ambient infection. This sentence is consistent with the path of “social projection → ambient infection”.

A16-5 “Most of the time I record my daily routine is to play. I think the data related to me is that it could please me” and C43 “This kind of multi-dimensional data is really good, very intuitive” can be classified as data utility. This statement is consistent with the path of “data sensitivity → data utility”.

A16-15 “I can make a recall association through these recorded data, knowing what I have done for a day or a month, and in the long run, I can know what kind of goals have been achieved in this year” can be classified as data literacy. This statement is consistent with the path of “data-sensitive → data literacy”.

Using the reserved interview sentences and Microblog comments for the theoretical saturation test, it is found that no new concepts or categories have emerged. So, it can be considered that the conceptual model of this study has reached theoretical saturation.

5. Analysis of the Conceptual Model of Quantified-Self Consciousness

In this study, the quantified-self consciousness is divided into three dimensions: individual thinking, social projection, and data sensitivity. In order to further sort out the internal refinement levels of each dimension, this study elaborates them in turn according to these three dimensions.

5.1. Individual Thinking

Individual thinking is one of the main categories of quantified-self consciousness. It is the quantified-self consciousness formed by individuals from the subjective level, which includes three dimensions: rational cognition, emotional pursuit, and thinking inertia.

Before quantified-self activities, although individuals may have had self-cognition, it is often vague and deviating from reality. Quantified-self activities make this cognition rational based on objective data. Individuals can have an in-depth and clear understanding of the self, judging the significance of the activity of self tracking to themselves, and speculating their own future trend in the activity of quantifying the self.

Individuals often have the emotional pursuit of “seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages”. At the self level, this pursuit is shown as developing a positive self and restraining a negative self. When individuals yearn for forwarding their advantages, such as self-discipline, or restraining their disadvantages, such as laziness, the quantified-self behavior often occurs.

Everyone has a certain degree of inertia. At the level of thinking, this inertia is thinking inertia, which means individuals take their own habits or existing rules as their own ideological line. If individuals have adapted to the behavior of quantifying themselves and are numb and unwilling to change their existing way of thinking because of inertia, they will continue to repeat this activity and will not change easily.

5.2. Social Projection

Social projection is another main category of quantified-self consciousness, which is formed by the individual at the social level, and is the projection of the social relationship in which the individual is located at their mind. It includes two dimensions: internalization of incentives and force, and ambient infection.

The internalization of incentives and force often become the inducement for individuals to produce quantified-self consciousness. When there is reward and attraction from the outside world, individuals incorporate the quantified-self activities guided by the reward into the existing cognitive structure, thus making new changes in their way of thinking and behavior. For example, English learners often study on the business platform for a fixed amount of time or task because of the “returning tuition”. On the contrary, when the outside world imposes compulsive or even punitive actions on the individual, the individual will also change their cognitive structure under pressure.

Each individual is inseparable from the social circle. When the circle in which the individual is located has a strong quantified-self atmosphere, in order to deepen their degree of integration and avoid being excluded by the circle, the quantifying self activities will also be incorporated in their own cognitive structure. In addition, when someone important for the individual expresses expectations or requirements, the individual will also develop a way of thinking to quantify themself.

5.3. Data Sensitivity

Data sensitivity is also the main category of quantified-self consciousness, which is the quantified-self consciousness formed by the individual from the data level, which refers to the utility brought by the data itself to the individual and the individual’s ability to identify the data and its implication. It includes two dimensions: data insight and data literacy.

When individuals have a preference for data, looking up to data will make individuals have positive emotions. Or if individuals perceive the functions of data, looking up to data will motivate individuals. All of these will prompt them to participate in quantified-self activities to a deeper extent. At the same time, people generally have the ability to understand and analyze data, and the role of this ability is more prominent in the online environment [48].

Quantifying self activities must require individuals to have digital literacy. This activity, as an individual behavior in the digital technology environment, requires individuals to effectively play their own data detection and understanding ability. If the individual has a keen ability to perceive and judge the meaning of the data and its connection with reality, the individual will be more inclined to quantify self as their own thought and action way.

6. Conclusions and Suggestions

This study uses grounded theory to conduct exploratory research on quantified-self consciousness, and builds a conceptual model of quantified-self consciousness. The results show that quantified-self consciousness can be divided into three dimensions: individual thinking, social projection, and data sensitivity. At the subdivision level, the individual-thinking dimension includes rational cognition, emotional pursuit, and thinking inertia; the social-projection dimension includes the internalization of incentives and force and ambient infection; and the data-sensitivity dimension includes data utility and data literacy. This model can also be used to further explain and explore the analytical model of quantified-self consciousness.

This study can provide management implications for wearable devices, application R&D, and other enterprises that provide quantified-self service. Consumers are more concerned about the role of the quantifying self on individuals at the cognitive level. So, enterprises can provide consumers with in-depth personal reports for consumers to form a profound personal cognition. Secondly, enterprises can also set appropriate material incentives to stimulate potential consumers to participate in quantified-self activities, or employ more influential opinion leaders to spread the superiority of quantified-self activities, so as to transform potential consumers into participants in quantified-self activities of enterprises. In addition, enterprises can also provide more in-depth data index monitoring, which can not only help consumers form a more comprehensive understanding, but also attract consumers who have a preference for data. For consumers whose data evoke low positive emotions, enterprises can adopt more concise and eye-catching designs in the user interface and add interactive functions to enhance users’ sense of immersion when conducting self-tracking activities and consulting quantified-self data.

For consumers with low data recognition ability, enterprises can attach its meaning to each data label in interface design and at the same time provide training services for consumers to directly and significantly improve their digital-related capabilities [49]. If individuals set long-term goals to quantify themselves, enterprises can provide more humane tracking services, reminding consumers when they set goals but do not participate in activities, giving positive encouragement and more effective plans when activities do not meet the standards, praising consumers and reminding them to move on to the next stage of goals after users have successfully completed their goals.

The conceptual model of quantified-self consciousness proposed in this study is based on grounded theory and exploratory analysis. However, it has the limitations of a small number of interviews, insufficient interview samples, and no empirical test of reliability and validity. In addition, the category classification of this study is mainly based on the in-depth analysis and classification of concepts from a spatial perspective, without taking into account the dynamic changes of consumers’ way of thinking in the whole process of quantifying themselves. The follow-up study can make an empirical analysis on the connotation of quantified-self consciousness structure on the basis of more samples, and more deeply explore the impact of quantified-self consciousness on consumer participation behavior.