Let's be honest: Which cyclist doesn't use an app to record their training data? Who doesn't constantly find themselves pulling their smartphone out of their pocket and sending their mates a photo of that absolutely brilliant trail descent? Here's a KOM, there's a quick video snippet for the upcoming vlog. We bikers are crazy about hard facts, documented memories and results, we want to capture our experiences in numbers and pictures so that we can share them with our social group. Author Jan Timmermann studied educational science and often asks himself the question of why: "Why do I never leave the house without Strava and why do I feel the need to send my family photos of all the exotic places I've been cycling to?" There is a sociological theory that could explain this behaviour. In our second part of the sociology of biking, we dedicate a few academic thoughts to a contemporary analysis of the result society.
From the experience society to the results society
The sociologist Gerhard Schulze analysed the experience factor as a new orientation aid in German society at the end of the 20th century with increasing prosperity and more choices. Products, such as mountain bikes, were sold primarily because of their promise of experience and membership of a particular group, such as the MTB scene, was now also defined by experiences made and shared. In turn, cultural scientist Hermann Bausinger observed some changes in the so-called "experience society" in 2015. The inward orientation with which the subjects in this same society strive for a beautiful, exciting life has become an almost unmanageable challenge for most people in everyday life. Experiences require the process of reflection in order to relate to the inner self. According to Bausinger, however, the constant availability and dissolution of boundaries in the character of experiences in all services, products and actions means that this process is increasingly being shortened. Opportunities and stimuli are now so densely packed that they encourage us to work through them quickly. In the context of the fast pace of everyday life, there is more of a need for results. Extrinsic motives have now replaced intrinsic ones in many places.
In fact, a mountain bike is an excellent way to gain as many experiences as possible in a short space of time. Just 90 minutes on a bike offers a multitude of extraordinary experiences, such as physical exertion, the sounds of nature, being alone in the forest and on the mountain, speed, cold, heat or airtime. Hardly any cyclist really takes the time to pause after each individual experience and reflect on what has just happened. Too quickly you're already on the next trail, at the next view or back at your desk. What remains of the inflation is the attempt to capture the experiences in results. Bausinger is certain that when people pull out their camera at sunset and share the image on social media, it is because they want to produce results and thus create social connections.
Sport by numbers
In a study, Bausinger analysed that the bureaucratic control of education, work, medicine and statistics was increasingly being transformed into a control of results. He also saw an increasing focus on results in sport. What is recognised as success is no longer just a healthy body, but also time measurements and rankings. Other social scientists also see a results-orientation in going to the gym, for example, which turns the body into a medium of symbolic expression in its own industry. Similarly, the assumption of daily uncertainties in the risk society is increasingly focussing on quick results. As risks are perceived as increasingly inflationary, abstract and indifferent, risk sports offer attractive stimuli and satisfaction of the human need for insecurity that was thought to be lost in conventional notions of security. Today, risk sports exploits are publicised by the mass media. The result of all this: Experiences continue to be increasingly devalued.
And with mountain biking? With many forms of biking, the risks are anything but abstract. For many, it may seem that the journey itself is the goal in this niche. This may be true in many cases, but in others the goal itself is the goal: "I cycled to Lake Tegernsee and back today!" Mobile phones, fitness trackers and smartwatches make it possible to track your own exercise performance around the clock. Watts pedalled, average speed, oxygen saturation, sleep quality and regeneration time - everything can be measured, everything is fascinating, everything can be used to promote new technology! The fact is that many bikers aim for a certain number of kilometres per year or set themselves other number-based goals: the first tour with 3000 metres of altitude, the five-metre drop in the bike park, 1000 calories burned, 500 views of the POV video, 100 likes of the summit photo.
Assessment
Jan Timmermann, BIKE editor, educational scientist (MA), social pedagogue (BA): The experience inflation and result-orientation of the current era cannot be denied. In many areas of life today, experience quantity takes precedence over quality and the cementing of one's own actions in results over reflection. Mountain biking has all of these aspects. If we take Bausinger's sociological criticism to heart, bikers should set off again more often without tracking and consciously refrain from taking photos and videos. How about a week of social media detox? Especially for athletes who have lost the intrinsic motivation to cycle over time, this popular scientific approach has a lot of potential for renewed enjoyment of cycling. But it's not that easy to put into practice.
Jan Timmermann
Editor
