My Fitness Community As A Part Of The Discourse Community
John Swales a well-recognized linguistic wrote a paper some decades ago titled 'The Concept of a Discoursed Community' in this paper he described the characteristics of a discourse community by having a broadly set of goals; having set ways of communication, enabling to provide information and feedback, utilizing and having one or more genres, lexis and a threshold level for membership. Swales states that even if these communities do have a few of these characteristics in no form would it completely mean that they are part of a discourse community. Mine did match a couple of those characteristics, whether it is or not I would find out.
I had a few questions that the fitness community would be viewed as talk, and why it would considerably matter to find so in any case. These questions before long stopped, as I dove further. In addition to the fact that it fell into a large portion of the criteria that is utilized in the discourse communities, yet it likewise revealed some surprising stories about human instinct, and the manners in which we work and associate.
In the everyday life you wouldn't dare to think many associations, clubs or even gyms would fit these characteristics. Joining a gym, is not only joining a gym. TY Kiisel wrote in a Forbes article “He could pass for 10 years younger than me… (it must be all the time he wastes at the gym)”. Kiisel goes more into depth about the benefits of working out, one being that employees who exercise consistently acquire nine percent more overall in payroll than others who don't work out. After all I guess you are judged on your appearance like the title stated. This only gives you a push for you to join with a purpose. It becomes a goal to get fit, to look good, that being one of Swales descriptive characteristics of the discourse community “The discourse community has a communality of interest”.
Swales himself talks about being part of a hobby group called Local Audobon Society their goal was being birdwatchers. They all shared the similar goal, but with different questions and answers. I myself joined the fitness community a couple of years back. Expecting great results in an overnight process, never realizing that joining the gym wasn't just joining the gym but joining the fitness community. The fitness community fits into Swales characteristic, when you join whether the reason might be doctor recommended or it being to become America's Next Top Model the goal is clear, to get fit. You might get fit through yoga, weightlifting or Zumba, it all circles back to the main goal of the community fitness.
Here we have the means of communication, Swales in the late 80’s didn’t have social media. In Swales first example he used a hobby group described in his paper as “a world-wide philatelic grouping of about 300 people who specialize in the postal history of Hong Kong. ” Never stating a name, this group used means of telephone calls, mail and a bimonthly bulletin and newsletters to communicate. This was probably the fastest and most reliable sources of communication. Now with the era of technology, communication is within our hands at all times. Wouldn’t they want that! We differentiate much to old days. Now you can communicate through Facebook fitness groups, Instagram, text messages and emails to only name a few. In an article written by Tara Sabo she states “…joining niche groups on Facebook give you access to likeminded people.
Updates from other runners can inspire you to push harder. . ” She goes on to talk about how she was never interested in the Facebook idea, but she gave it a try and she got hooked. Not for social purposes but more of self-purposes. She used it to check on those people in the same industry as her in the fitness world. It kept her up to date, inspired to continue and every other aspect of the fitness community genres. Social media has become a source with endless amounts of information for those who seek it. Joining a social media page will explode with your most searched and liked content. It becomes a domino effect, it not only links you to other people out there with the same goal as you, but it links you to the tools and technology that make it easier to track your progress. I believe it ties into another of Swales characteristics because with a variety of tools you can not only see others achieve what the fitness industry shows but also give and receive feedback.
YouTube for example has become a great resource for influencers, fitness personal trainers, etc. YouTube is viewed as the least demanding route for one to proceed to get information about the fitness community. It is available from home and truly a single tick away. These genres of recordings fill in as the turning point for many individuals like me to join the fitness industry. Hitting the subscribe button and forward on you will be immerse with the information and feedback. From there you can see in the comment section many people asking and receiving feedback and answers to their comments or questions. Subsequently, the fitness community is in a way a discourse community as Erik Borg expressed, “… members of a discourse community actively share goals and communicate with other members to pursue those goals. ”
But in reality, what is communication and feedback if you don't understand exactly what they are referring to. This community has its own language, terminologies that only members understand. HITT, reps, super set, circuit just to name a few were some of the words I came by when I had freshly joined the community. I personally would hear circuit and thought about electricity! These terms are more regularly utilized in the fitness community however they can likewise be seen utilized in YouTube videos or the gym. The reason for these wordings is both to depict the kind of exercise you're doing however they likewise serve to set up a feeling of having a place in this community for all individuals as these terms are known just inside. To Swales this is stated as 'the discourse community possesses an inbuilt dynamic towards an increasingly shared and specialized terminology. Nowhere is this more evident than in the development of community-specific acronyms and abbreviations. ” Yet another set similarity of Swales discourse community to the fitness community.
Even though I feel my community could not fit into Swales description because he stated “. . . speech communities are centripetal (they pull people in)”. You are being persuaded into the fitness community in a way. It's like an infomercial they teach you why you need the product but subliminally they want you to buy it. The fact that you see the super model and you want to achieve that physique is a sell. But n conclusion these similarities to John Swales paper seem to fit perfectly like puzzle pieces in my community. According to Swales I quote “. . . discourse communities are centrifugal (they set people, or part of people, apart) … discourse communities are typically Special Interest Groups. To me this is my key to finalize my answer. My fitness community is part of the discourse community, it has its own set of special interests it sets its people apart.
Works Cited
- Kiisel, T. (2013, March 20) You are Judged by Your Appearance. Retrieved from Forbes, Forbes Magazine, www. forbes. com/sites/tykiisel/2013/03/20/you-are-judged-by-your-appearance/#664e77226d50.
- Sabo, Tara. (2013, July 25) The power of social media to affect our health and fitness. Retrieved from Greatist, https://greatist. com/health/social-media-affects-fitness.
- Swales, J. (1987, March). Approaching the concept of discourse community. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Retrieved February 28,2019, from Eric.
