Video games, Television, the Internet are all the bad guys for encouraging children and teenagers to be lazy and become physically sedative. The average time a day that children age 8-18 spend on entertaining media a day is an average of seven and a half hours according to a national survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. That equates to seven and a half hours a day that they are sedative and not active. It is obvious that it is a major contributor in adding to the obesity epidemic of our children in this country. Since a major cause of childhood obesity has been identified (technology devices) how can it be reversed and prevented? School education programs on health fitness have obviously been ineffective due to the fact that there is still an overwhelmingly large population of large little ones. Recent research in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that one third of all the children in America are either overweight or obese. This number shows that something needs to be done to change the approach of how fitness and health is being presented to this population. The answer is to fight fire with fire, or in this case technology with technology.
The fight against obesity with the use of technology is starting to take off in targeting the younger population. It has been seen how the use of different mediums of technological use in adults have shown success in becoming more active and making healthier lifestyle choices, but none of these methods have been successful for children until recently. Adults have been using gadgets that have allowed them to track the progress they are making when being physically active throughout the day and it has been shown to be a successful motivator (seeing the data from the physical activity they performed throughout the day), but for children it has not been as of an intriguing medium. This idea has recently started to change. There is a new product on the market called a Zamzee. This product embraces the idea of using medium of the internet and a virtual game that kids already use as a tool to encourage them to become more physically active. It is essentially a pedometer that is connected to the computer that then connects the child to the virtual world of Zamzee. Here the child is able to make an avatar of themselves, see their progress of how active they were during the day, meet other children using the device, and ultimately be rewarded for increasing physically active. Lets be honest what child does not enjoy a reward? This new tool is a huge advancement in using technology as a motivator for children to become more active. Parents are able to access the account and provide the child with a fitness allowance. Once the child reaches the goal they are able to collect the allowance and then purchase items such as small toys, iPods or other gadgets off the website. Now many may ask does will this actually motivate the child? According to a recent study at UCLA the product has had a very positive effect on sedentary children to become just as active as children that are highly active (a 59% increase). This study does support that it will be an effective tool for most children.
This new product and recent research findings through UCLA can open a whole new direction on how to attack childhood obesity. It is a sophisticated device and program that uses a positive psychological approach through an inviting medium for the child. Now the Zamzee is not the only product out there to get children more active. For example there are video games where a bike needs to be pedaled to advance through the game as well as other main stream products such as Wii Fit and Xbox Kinect, but yet they are used in a confined medium (the tv) and once the child gets board of them will they just stop playing? Do these products show them results and give them rewards? These are questions to ponder as advances are made in trying to get a younger generation more active. Reviewing a product such as the Zamzee it is my hope that it has only started a momentous push forward on how as a society we can use the inviting medium of technology such as the Internet to make one of the causes of obesity a cure.
Noah E.
The fight against obesity with the use of technology is starting to take off in targeting the younger population. It has been seen how the use of different mediums of technological use in adults have shown success in becoming more active and making healthier lifestyle choices, but none of these methods have been successful for children until recently. Adults have been using gadgets that have allowed them to track the progress they are making when being physically active throughout the day and it has been shown to be a successful motivator (seeing the data from the physical activity they performed throughout the day), but for children it has not been as of an intriguing medium. This idea has recently started to change. There is a new product on the market called a Zamzee. This product embraces the idea of using medium of the internet and a virtual game that kids already use as a tool to encourage them to become more physically active. It is essentially a pedometer that is connected to the computer that then connects the child to the virtual world of Zamzee. Here the child is able to make an avatar of themselves, see their progress of how active they were during the day, meet other children using the device, and ultimately be rewarded for increasing physically active. Lets be honest what child does not enjoy a reward? This new tool is a huge advancement in using technology as a motivator for children to become more active. Parents are able to access the account and provide the child with a fitness allowance. Once the child reaches the goal they are able to collect the allowance and then purchase items such as small toys, iPods or other gadgets off the website. Now many may ask does will this actually motivate the child? According to a recent study at UCLA the product has had a very positive effect on sedentary children to become just as active as children that are highly active (a 59% increase). This study does support that it will be an effective tool for most children.
This new product and recent research findings through UCLA can open a whole new direction on how to attack childhood obesity. It is a sophisticated device and program that uses a positive psychological approach through an inviting medium for the child. Now the Zamzee is not the only product out there to get children more active. For example there are video games where a bike needs to be pedaled to advance through the game as well as other main stream products such as Wii Fit and Xbox Kinect, but yet they are used in a confined medium (the tv) and once the child gets board of them will they just stop playing? Do these products show them results and give them rewards? These are questions to ponder as advances are made in trying to get a younger generation more active. Reviewing a product such as the Zamzee it is my hope that it has only started a momentous push forward on how as a society we can use the inviting medium of technology such as the Internet to make one of the causes of obesity a cure.
Noah E.
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