The notches on North American bedposts are going digital, thanks to websites that allow people to map their sexual habits online. These password-protected sites transform such intimate data as the duration of encounters, number of partners and frequency of intercourse into graphics.

Pie charts, line graphs and histograms have never looked so interesting.

Unlike social networking and lifeblogging sites, these high-tech black books are designed for individuals who want to discreetly note trends in their own private lives. It's all part of what scholars call "self-tracking," defined as the meticulous recording and analysis of life activities in order to extract deeper meaning.

"People eternally want to know about themselves," says Jayne Gackenbach, a professor in the department of psychology at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton. "The Internet has opened up a new way of thinking about who we are in relation to the world."

MyBlackBook.org, for example, uses national sexually transmitted infection rates to determine a member's likelihood of contracting an STI based on his or her habits. Because all data is confidential MyBlackBook founder, Robert Ianuale, says the site's security measures "are on par with those of large banks" all calculations are performed electronically via pre-programmed algorithms.

"They have all the information in front of them so they can make a real assessment of their sex life," says Ianuale, whose site has attracted more than 12,000 members from Canada, the U.S. and overseas.

If introspection is this generation's drug of choice, the web is its enabler. In addition to sites that transform sexual conquests into information bytes, there are now online data-tracking platforms for places travelled, food consumed, calories expended, behaviours performed, websites surfed, menstrual cycles, daily fluctuation of blood pressure and more.

According to Gackenbach, the advantage of such sites is they allow a measure of objectivity people might not otherwise have.

"We're always somewhat deluded about how many calories we consume, how many cigarettes we smoke," she says. "Tracking this stuff gives a real baseline."

On BedPosted.com, which is still in beta testing, users are asked to log their sexual activity on a calendar, including such information as partner names, times of activity, the quality of the encounters and descriptive words to describe them. The site analyzes the data and creates various charts and diagrams that reveal that person's long-term preferences and trends.

"There are so many people who will think that's the most horrible thing they've ever heard like, why would you want to quantify this personal relationship between people as just another thing to be recorded?" says site developer Kevin Conboy. "But I'm just giving people a tool that will give them insight to their lives."

Conboy, whose day job is transforming financial data into visualizations for Wall Street, created the program back in 2004 as a way of monitoring sex with his wife. By seeing their activity in pure data form, he says they were able to break old patterns while providing themselves with a record for future comparison.

"The point isn't that you need this," says Conboy. "The point is that it's fun to think about."

Mandi Alexander, a 26-year-old student studying human sexuality, recently joined BedPosted.com because she thought it "would be a really cool way to keep track" of her boudoir behaviours.

"You can remember individual instances but it's hard to see overall patterns on your own," says Alexander, whose boyfriend also registered for an account.

Asked if the monitoring process has heightened her awareness of her sex life, Alexander responds with a laugh: "I think about it all the time, anyway."