Author(s):
- Lupton, Deborah
Abstract:
Human bodies have always interacted with technologies. However, the nature of the technology has changed over the millennia. In the contemporary digital era, bodies are digitized, both by individuals on their behalf and by other actors and agencies seeking to portray and monitor their bodies. This examines the ways in which human bodies interact with and are configured by digital technologies and how these technologies generate new knowledges and practices about bodies. It focuses on literature from sociocultural theorizing of the body, childhood, digital technologies and big data, particularly that by scholars adopting the sociomaterial perspective. The chapter presents a general overview of theoretical approaches to conceptualizing the interactions between bodies and technologies. It outlines the ways in which infants’ and young children’s bodies are digitized. Digital social theorists have drawn attention to the increasingly sensor-saturated physical environments in which people move, which add to the pre-existing technologies for visually observing and documenting human movements in public spaces.