  Self-tracking, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of personal data,
signifies an individualized way of health governance as people are demanded to
build a responsible self by internalizing norms. However, the technological
promises often bear conflicts with various social factors such as a strenuous
schedule, a lack of motivation, stress, and anxieties, which fail to deliver
health outcomes. To re-problematize the phenomenon, this paper situates
self-tracking in an overworking culture in China and draws on semi structured
and in depth interviews with overworking individuals to reveal the patterns in
users interactions and interpretations with self-tracking data. It builds on
the current literature of self-tracking and engages with theories from Science
and Technology Studies, especially sociomaterial assemblages (Lupton 2016) and
technological mediation (Verbeek 2005), to study self-tracking in a
contextualized way which connects the micro (data reading, visualization, and
affective elements in design) with the macro (work and workplaces,
socioeconomic and political background) contexts of self-tracking. Drawing on
investigation of the social context that users of self-tracking technologies
internalize, reflect, or resist, the paper argues that the productivity and
value oriented assumptions and workplace culture shape the imaginary of
intensive (and sometimes impossible) self-care and health, an involution of
competence embedded in the technological design and users affective
experiences. Users respond by enacting different design elements and social
contexts to frame two distinctive data practices of self-tracking.
