Body Order and Domestication Practices in the Digital Fitness Media

In contemporary society, digital fitness media have emerged as a crucial technological means for individuals to undertake body management and health pursuit. Grounded in the domestication theory, this article employs methods of in-depth interviews and participatory observation to profoundly explore the dynamic process through which users incorporate digital fitness media into their daily practices. The research indicates that the domestication practice of digital fitness media embodies a two-way interactive process from the "user-technology" mutual construction perspective. On the one hand, media technology enhances users' subjective experiences by means of technological empowerment, social interaction and self-quantification, achieving empowering domestication. On the other hand, the embedded social aesthetic standards and data logic in media technology exert latent disciplinary effects, giving rise to domestication practices of a sense of losing control. This further triggers two distinct result paths: Some users proactively conduct reflective re-domestication and regain subjectivity through strategy adjustment and the reconstruction of body concepts; while others fall into passive reverse domestication, manifesting as physical and mental imbalances and resistance to or evasion of technology.