Comments by "XSportSeeker" (@XSpImmaLion) on "How GPS can make you better at running" video.

  1. It's a great story, and I like the elements of it... but I also feel it's leaving lots of downsides off. While Gene feels empowered and sort of part of this positive feedback loop with social media, I personally felt the opposite. I started sharing runs with these apps some 7 years ago more or less with apps like Endomondo and a few others, but the more I kept doing it, the less I ran. Because you feel pressured to do it on a regular basis, and because you think you need to keep getting better, you start unfavourably comparing yourself to others and to yourself, the burnout comes fast and badly. To the point, I never was close to being an athlete, I had no intentions of being one, and the most I've ever ran personally at huge pains was 12 miles. Nowadays I do closer to 8, at a slow pace in comparison. This is a classic case of survivor bias. For every Gene, there are hundreds if not thousands of people who will never get any recognition or any Vox video piece for their efforts. It can be dangerous to link an activity that you do to improve your health to stuff like social networks, fame, competition for competition's sake, or whatever. It can work for some, of course, but it's dangerous because it might have an opposite effect. For most people, it can be an unecessary step, or even an obstacle in the way of getting in shape or getting fit. And at least for me personally, ultimately it was just better to keep things separate and simpler. Privacy worries are of course serious and a huge issue in itself, but it's not the only downside by far. I also have friends who got so much into this idea of positive feedback loop that the priority became social networks, and they ended up injuring themselves in the process of beating their own records, dropping by the sideways and never being able to go back. After my stint with GPS tracking and health apps, at some point I just gave up and got a bunch of weight back. It was only after some years of not even trying that I decided to go back, this time without GPS tracking, without all the gadgetry, without posting on social networks, without the "quantifiable self" trend, just running for running sake's, just for my personal health, just because I knew it would make me sleep better, drop some weight, and relieve a bit of stress. So take this comment as you will. Social networks, oversharing, and the quantifiable self trend has huge potentials to push you towards a better and healthier lifestyle, sure, but it can also go the exact opposite way. And I might say it probably is bad for the majority of people, because only few can succeed. It can be dangerous to relate one to the other. It can be specially dangerous if you, like Gene, feel like you need all your gadgets to run in the first place. It puts control and power at the hands of gadget companies, and it makes you dependant of something entirely separate to do your activities. Perhaps it's better than nothing, but still not a very good situation. If the trend passes, these companies go backrupt, if your social circle folds and stop paying attention to your exercise routine, if you get in a situation where you don't have the money to pay for the next big trendy gadget, and stuff like that, would running lose meaning for you?
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