Luke Rickleff
11/13/14
English Comp. 101-12
Lora Strey
Mass Media/Technology Influences on Fitness
With technology becoming such an important part of our everyday life with our phones, computers, and TV controlling most of it. But what role do these new technology and the mass media that comes with it play in fitness. All of the factors can add up to an unclear understanding on whether it truly helps with fitness. New fitness technologies and way to stay fit make it easy for people to stay fit and workout. With home workout videos like P90X and Zumba, they bring the gym right to the consumer.
Yet television, computers, video games and social media take up more of peoples time that they use to be online and sitting around rather than being active.A study conducted by University of North Carolina Chapel Hill researchers and published in Obesity Reviews,"they observed that the U.S., total physical activity trends went from 235 MET hours per week in 1965 to nearly 160 MET hours per week in 2009. Our sedentary lifestyle increased from 26.4 MET hours in 1965 to 37.7 MET hours in 2009." This is a substantial change and can be explained by the major increase in technology and its role that it plays into our every day lives. With this data from that study "forecasts physical activity to be around 142 MET hours per week by 2020, using linear trends based on 2003-2009. In 2030, it's even lower - 126 MET hours per week due to declining work-related, domestic and travel physical activity." To put that in perspective, sedentary time or time spent laying around will have increase by over 42 hours per week by 2030 more than the average work day for most people. With pleasure and sedentary time increasing quickly, this leaves less time for other activities including working out and fitness.
But there is hope that technology and social media could spark a new movement to become more active. Technology can be used to promote physical activity and change exercise behavior. For years, pedometers, accelerometers, and heart rate monitors have been used as motivational tools. Newer technologies and approaches being used to promote physical activity include global positioning system, interactive video games, and persuasive technology. Also, experts suggest that Internet-based physical activity interventions should be used by clinicians to promote and change exercise behavior. Social media like Facebook and blogs like ours can be links to tools and technology that make it easy to keep track of your health and fitness.They help you connect yourself to others and to use them to keep track of your own progress. Another important factor is that social media is an endless stream of information. Participating in Twitter chats and joining niche groups on Facebook gives you access to like minded people. Updates from other runners can inspire you to push harder, and links to races can inform you of events you may never have known about. These people, their information and experiences, make you want to be to do your very best.
So as you can see technology and mass media is a double edged sword. It can both help and hinder your physical fitness. There are technology and social sites and groups that can motivate and give you new workout ideas or event dates and times. But on the other hand technology as a whole will continue to affect the level of activity for ordinary people. As the long run trend shows that sedentary time will continue to increase as physical activity while then suffer because of it. No matter how you look at it technology is here to stay, so we can either continue to let it hinder the our physical activity levels or we can adapt it to help promote fitness for the future.
Work Cited
"15 Top Fitness Gadgets." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 19 Oct. 2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
Ciccolo, Marcus. "Using Technology to Promote Physical Activity." Human-kinetics. 27 July 2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
Qidwae, Aisha. "Technology Negatively Affecting Our Health, Study Shows." Technology Negatively Affecting Our Health, Study Shows. Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, 23 July 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
Soba, Tara. "The Power of Social Media to Affect Our Health and Fitness." Greatist. 25 July 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
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ReplyDeleteI like this blog post. I feel like it's very informational and gives some good ideas as to how to incorporate social media. I also liked the factual paragraph it gave some good insight. I like how you talk about facebook groups because that's how I started running is through a facebook group here in Mankato. Overall this was a well written blog post.
ReplyDeleteI agree media has changed the way that people workout. Thanks to media you don't have to leave the house to workout anymore. I like this blog though I feel as it gets to the point. I like how you get into detail and share data.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is really cool that we use technology to make our heath better but in a social way. I feel people will use the technology to realize eating healthier and dieting is fun. I think it is really cool that the technology allows us to compete with others over monitoring devices and to challenge and make each other better.
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