Are we fit yet? English adolescent girls’ experiences of health and fitness apps

Abstract

Are we fit yet? English adolescent girls' experiences of health and fitness appsWord count: 7469 In recent years, society has witnessed a proliferation of digital technologies facilitate new ways to monitor young people's health. This paper explores a group of English adolescent girls' understandings of 'health' promoted by health and fitness related technologies. Five focus group meetings with the same eight girls, aged between fourteen and seventeen, were conducted to explore their experiences of using health and fitness apps. The girls' understandings of the digitised body are examined through a Foucauldian lens, with particular attention to conceptualisations of bio-power and technologies of the self. The data reveals how the girls negotiated, and at times critiqued, the multiple health discourses that are manifest through digital health technologies and performative health culture. The results emphasise that individual-based applications (apps) remove the social and interactive elements of physical activity valued by the girls. This research highlights the possibilities digital technologies provide for health promotion, yet also illuminates the limitations of these technologies if used uncritically and inappropriately.

Young people learning about health: the role of apps and wearable devices

“…In contrast to most existing evidence (Goodyear, Kerner, and Quennerstedt 2017;Depper and Howe 2017), the findings demonstrate that potentially positive and negative health-related impacts do not stem solely from access to unregulated content, and/or regulatory and disciplinary practices of digital health technologies. It was evident that young people's health-related needs, understandings and behaviours vary over time, and that engagement in schools, PE lessons and sport, and with family members and peers, are also powerful influencers.…”

“…Digital health technologies are a particular concern for many adults because they disrupt the flow of traditional forms of health knowledge that adults are familiar with Miah 2014, 2017;Rettberg 2014). These types of technologies are spaces where commercial, government, community and individual contexts overlap (Freishtat and Sandlin 2010;Williamson 2015) and where reductionist, normative and neo-liberal constructs of health are promoted extensively (Rettberg 2014;Depper and Howe 2017). Yet, and as we have found in our research on social media (Goodyear, Armour, and Wood 2018), beyond a focus on sensitive topics, such as sexual health (Albury 2013), there is little mention in current education/childcare policies about the role of digital health technologies in young people's lives Miah 2017, 2014;Third et al 2017) and very limited guidance on how apps and wearable devices might be adapted for use by young people (Bakker et al 2016;Bevelander et al 2018).…”

Co-evolving with self-tracking technologies

“…Earlier research argues that the self-discovery through numbers promoted by the QS conforms to the model of the ideal neoliberal citizen: the self-optimizing individual who voluntarily collects data on their own health and wellbeing, taking control of and regulating physiologies and everyday behavior (Depper and Howe, 2017;Fotopoulou and O'Riordan, 2016;Lupton, 2013aLupton, , 2013b Reference: Co-evolving with technologies. New Media and Society.…”

The Quantified Athlete: Associations of Wearables for High School Athletes

“…However, fitness trackers users had the highest level of athletic identity and this was significant in subdomains too, when compared with athletes without fitness trackers. This was also expected, because the use of fitness trackers are associated with being fit among adolescents [25]. Data ownership from the quantified self allows the athletes to change their own behaviours and could then be shared with others [26].…”