Cross Fit and Fitness on Social Media - Contextual analysis
You wake up, roll out of bed and start off your daily routine. As you sit at the kitchen table eating your cold cereal, you pull out your phone and get on Facebook or Instagram and start scrolling through your news feed for the latest updates. You skip post after post of people pursuing their fitness goals. This makes you wonder why they feel it is important to document their every move. How many times has that happened to one of us? All the time. But what does this mean?
To some, it goes back to the ancient Greeks and their Olympics. In those times, it begin with several types of games from boxing to discus and running. Now, fitness has developed into bodybuilding, sports performance, cross fit, and more. Fitness has become more of an everyday occurrence, rather than something unique and rare.
The trend of documenting fitness on social media has increased greatly over the last several years. This has not only occurred on social media platforms, but also on personal blogs. A website named, Simply Measured, identified the top 10 social media fitness pages.
Context
The main area within this topic is psychological, social and cultural context. however, i have covered the 5 basic contexts below. On a website named EliteDaily.com, there is a post talking about the culture of fitness.- Physical: this impacts this event because of the location where working out takes place. It is usually at the physical performance facility that is equipped with weights, treadmills, etc.
- Psychological: physical fitness relates to emotional health which can be a driving factor. It is common for posts on social media to have an inspirational quote that would encourage one to push to their physical goals. A post by greatist.com, spoke of the impact that that social media can on one's health and fitness. An example was given on that webpage stating when one first saw a photo of the medal from winning the Boston marathon, and how that encouraged them to prepare to run the race. As the race approached, more posts on social media helped them feel a desire to push themselves to win the race.
- Social: Fitness can be a social thing. On social media it is common for individuals to interact with others. This can include commenting on photos, and encouraging others to get physically fit. This expands beyond the training gyms. Some take it to the extent of creating communities on different social media sites to build up their following. According to remedypr.com this is often reflected towards high intensity interval training (HIIT). This is what brings forward more exposure to social media about cross fit.
- Cultural: in the United States, it is becoming more culturally common to go to the gym and to workout. Even posting photos on social media at the gym or doing a new workout. For the past several years this has been apparent on social media. On hlntv.com, there are 9 portions within the cross fit culture.
- Temporal: commonly many people get tied up and involved in fitness that it becomes their life. Many look at that as a negative thing when that time that is used could be put elsewhere such as spending time with family etc.
My Thoughts
I think that the trend on social media is a waste of time. Personally i like to go to a gym or do something active without the need to take a photo and post about why i feel its awesome to work out. I know the benefits i receive and i don't need to be plastering others news feeds so they accept that.
