Identity, Connection, and Surveillance: The Use of Fitness-Tracking Wearable Devices in Collegiate Athletics

Abstract

In recent years, the implementation of wearable fitness-tracking programs into various organizations, such as universities, corporations, and athletic teams, has raised a number of concerns by scholars, namely that the increased surveillance these programs provide will be negatively experienced by participants. However, there is a lack of studies on the lived realities of these programs by those who do and do not participate. Drawing on interviews of players on a collegiate athletic team that uses a fitness-tracker called WHOOP, this study examines how this program is experienced individually, socially, and structurally by players on the team. This exploratory research examines how using WHOOP emboldens players' senses of athlete identity, creates social solidarity as well as social exclusion, and reinforces power imbalances between players and coaches. This has implications for how organizations integrate not only wearable devices, but also other kinds of fitness-tracking and quantification schemes into team-based settings.