ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines eight characteristics of the new fitness boom, and in the process reviews the analyses presented in preceding chapters of this book. The new fitness boom, it is argued, is: 1) socio-technical; 2) interactive; 3) data intensive; 4) mobile; 5) networked; 6) gamified; 7) individualized; and 8) commodified in ways both ‘old’ and ‘new’. Having outlined these traits, the chapter turns to an assessment of the significance of contemporary fitness technologies – an analysis that is informed by the theoretical traditions reviewed in the book’s introductory chapter. Rather than a fitness revolution, the new fitness boom is deemed the reconceptualization of governmentality in neoliberal times: fitness technologies advance a self-care imperative while at the same time serving as sites for investment and value production. That said, the prospect of amusing ourselves to life is not without flaws. The pessimism of the ‘technology as repressive’ tradition informs a discussion of the problems arising from the new fitness boom and of how these problems might be addressed and countered in years to come.
