Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the development of a number of exercise and sports interactive fitness technologies and applications (e.g., Endomondo, Fitocracy, RunKeeper, Runtastic, My Fitness Pal, Nike+ Running, and Zwift) through which activities such as running and cycling have become gamified (Kappen et al., 2017) and biomedicalized (Carter et al., 2018). Complimenting their data-tracking functions and the extensive quantification of exercise behaviour, many such interactive fitness technologies and applications have integrated aspects of more traditional social networking sites such as Facebook, thus positioning users within an online social fitness network. These online social fitness networks provide a new hybridized research environment of confluent spheres, meaning and behaviour where real-world exercise activities and online motivational affordances meet at the intersection of sports, exercise, technology and communication (Smith & Treem, 2017). Given the popularity of online social fitness networks it is important to understand the motivational affordances of the technology in initializing and sustaining user uptake. Adopting a grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), this poster discursively explores the motivational affordances of the Strava social fitness network among a mixed nationality sample of cyclists. Attention is given to the ways in which users discursively reference the motivational affordances of Strava in relation to autonomy and the self, competence and achievement, relatedness, leadership and followership and affect and emotion. The poster demonstrates how new communication technologies and social networks related to exercise and fitness are facilitating the personalization of hybrid communities, and how these online/offline communities and their technological affordances are communicated.