ABSTRACT
‘Be your best self’, or some variant thereof, is a common refrain in fitness-technology marketing. This chapter and the chapter that follows aim to assess how contemporary fitness technologies actually function. How do they work? The answer lies to a great extent in the assembling of surveillance modalities: haptic surveillance involves monitoring consumers through the touch; self-surveillance involves self-scrutiny using technology-generated data; lateral surveillance involves surveillance across online networks of ‘friends’. In these processes, both people and technologies take on new roles. Technologies become anthropomorphized coaches and trainers. People become not just consumers but producers of data. What’s more, consumers can have fun in data production through the gamified dimensions of technology experience. The promised outcome of such activity is an optimized way of life. You can be your best self by addressing areas of susceptibility and/or enhancing existing capacities. The final section of this chapter considers the implications of this ‘surveillant assemblage’, particularly as they pertain to the role of fitness in promoting bodily ideals.
