Reflections from the ‘Strava-sphere’: Kudos, community, and (self-)surveillance on a social network for athletes

‘Friendly’ and ‘noisy surveillance’ through MapMyRun during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…First, whilst there is a considerable amount of research about the social aspects of Strava (another running app), including Stragier et al, 2015 , Pink et al, 2017 , Ajana, 2017 and Couture (2021) , the social aspects of MMR are less well studied. The studies which have focused on MMR have tended to be quantitative, mainly through the analysis of GPS data.…”

“…An extreme form of this has been explored through research on the Quantified Self movement, a community of self-trackers founded in 2007, who regularly meet up to share data ( Ajana, 2017 ) and share experiences through an online social medium (Lupton, 2017). Other research has begun to explore more everyday experiences of the sociality of self-tracking (such as, Ajana, 2017 ; Kent, 2018 ; Couture, 2021 ) beyond this particular movement, as self-tracking technologies become increasingly used and entangled with social media encouraging social interaction and providing social support ( Littlejohns et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Moreover, this paper brings this conceptual work on surveillance into conversation with work in digital geographies, which aims to understand how the body becomes entangled within the digital as technologies become increasingly integrated in everyday lives ( Kinsley, 2014 , Pink and Fors, 2017 ), specifically in relation to debates around performance management in online spaces ( van Doorn, 2011 ). Moreover, through a specific focus on the social aspects of self-tracking during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper also contributes to interdisciplinary literatures concerning both digital sociality ( Couture, 2021 ) and the importance of connection with local outdoor spaces, for wellbeing during lockdown ( Burrell et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Research to date has analysed the panoptic forms of surveillance present within these technologies ( Lupton, 2012 ) and the opportunities for social surveillance, whereby people actively invite surveillance from others, whilst sometimes simultaneously watching, others ( Lupton, 2014 ). However, there remains a need for further research to develop a nuanced understanding of self-tracking as a meaningful and increasingly social practice ( Couture, 2021 ).…”

“… This paper considers the nature of social surveillance through the physical activity tracking app MapMyRun and examines how this was experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic during the UK and USA summer 2020 lockdowns. In contributing to debates in digital geographies around the entanglements of the fleshy and digital body, the paper responds to calls for research to recognise the increasing sociality of self-tracking ( Couture, 2021 ), specifically considering how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, these apps offered a form of connection during a time of isolation. Using data from email and video interviews, I argue that whilst a Foucauldian account of surveillance can be used as a point of departure, it is limited in accounting for the social aspects of self-tracking.…”