This may be a silly question but what is the interest of this type of apps for an average user? I mean, I do daily walks as my main physical activity and never felt any need to use an app to track/log my activities. So, I’m just curious to know what is the incentive to download an use such an app?
I can easily imagine that and I would love to be able to say I am too :)
Most of my life, I lived with one dog or more… When my mast dog passed away, some 20 years ago, we moved in this big city, in a very small flat… a dog is not even a realistic option here. Even less so that my spouse are getting old and I would worry what will happen to our dog after we pass.
honestly given my wifes and my ages and our condo we have to big a dog. I was more against it but its hard to fight something you don’t really want to do. Its like fighting to eat healthier food or watching less tv. Our current dog should be smaller and we really should not get one after her given our ages.
Just so you know: we have not owned a tv since 2000. And, as much as possible, we eat healthy food. I mean, no industrially processed (and over packaged) junk/industrial fast or not fast food. Even our bread is handmade (not by us, we would not have enough room, but by the small local bakery that makes everything the good old way) ;)
I considered a smaller dog but since we’re both not in the best health… I just can’t. At least, I can regularly see dogs at the park, and sometimes I will pet them.
Think of Strava as turning any form of outdoor exercise into a multiplayer game.
The whole concept is basically that each training session (for me, cycling, running) ends up as an automatic (editable) diary post with all your stats from the session, a nice map of where you went and what contested “segments” you traversed. You can then compare what you did to how well you did five years ago or how your buddy from the cycling club did.
From a privacy perspective Strava is egregious (plenty of people have been killed based on the data users make PUBLIC). And for things like daily walks it makes zero sense (IMO).
I can’t understand how people would be… that careless and be willing to publicly share such a risky type of data, though. Well, exactly like you mentioned: we know some weirdos could easily abuse that kind of information to harm those users.
Since I’m one of them, I think the appeal is that it’s sort of another dimension to training/doing sports. Going out on a 3 hour bicycle ride becomes a little less solipsistic, if that makes sense. You feel sorta included in the local scene for that sport and you get to see how many else likes to do the same thing. And how you compare.
I use the clock and a mix of various destinations to make sure I will walk enough. For that I just need a good old wrist watch for that, without any tracking included.
Walking also helped me lose quite some extra-weight, so if I may say so myself: congrats, that’s great :)
Nice! Yeah I know tracking may not be “required” but for me it’s not always easy to quantify especially on days when the weather is bad. I probably will be switching one day to a lower tech solution like a pedometer, given this article. Those are like $15.
This may be a silly question but what is the interest of this type of apps for an average user? I mean, I do daily walks as my main physical activity and never felt any need to use an app to track/log my activities. So, I’m just curious to know what is the incentive to download an use such an app?
It’s gamifying your exercise. Some get a dog to remind them, some use an app, some just have the habits.
I see. For me it has become something I need to do. I will just feel like shit the day I can’t ;)
im currently a dog one. I have forgotten but she lets me know.
I can easily imagine that and I would love to be able to say I am too :)
Most of my life, I lived with one dog or more… When my mast dog passed away, some 20 years ago, we moved in this big city, in a very small flat… a dog is not even a realistic option here. Even less so that my spouse are getting old and I would worry what will happen to our dog after we pass.
honestly given my wifes and my ages and our condo we have to big a dog. I was more against it but its hard to fight something you don’t really want to do. Its like fighting to eat healthier food or watching less tv. Our current dog should be smaller and we really should not get one after her given our ages.
Just so you know: we have not owned a tv since 2000. And, as much as possible, we eat healthy food. I mean, no industrially processed (and over packaged) junk/industrial fast or not fast food. Even our bread is handmade (not by us, we would not have enough room, but by the small local bakery that makes everything the good old way) ;)
I considered a smaller dog but since we’re both not in the best health… I just can’t. At least, I can regularly see dogs at the park, and sometimes I will pet them.
Think of Strava as turning any form of outdoor exercise into a multiplayer game.
The whole concept is basically that each training session (for me, cycling, running) ends up as an automatic (editable) diary post with all your stats from the session, a nice map of where you went and what contested “segments” you traversed. You can then compare what you did to how well you did five years ago or how your buddy from the cycling club did.
From a privacy perspective Strava is egregious (plenty of people have been killed based on the data users make PUBLIC). And for things like daily walks it makes zero sense (IMO).
Thx a lot for the detailed explanation.
I can’t understand how people would be… that careless and be willing to publicly share such a risky type of data, though. Well, exactly like you mentioned: we know some weirdos could easily abuse that kind of information to harm those users.
Since I’m one of them, I think the appeal is that it’s sort of another dimension to training/doing sports. Going out on a 3 hour bicycle ride becomes a little less solipsistic, if that makes sense. You feel sorta included in the local scene for that sport and you get to see how many else likes to do the same thing. And how you compare.
If you’re into sports, then the more advanced metrics are quite helpful.
Stuff like pacing for runs, pre-programmed workouts, measuring training load over time, etc.
offline apps can do those too, like fitotrack on fdroid
Step counting is a way to ensure you get an acceptable amount of exercise in a stagnant world. I lost substantial weight in part by counting my steps.
I use the clock and a mix of various destinations to make sure I will walk enough. For that I just need a good old wrist watch for that, without any tracking included.
Walking also helped me lose quite some extra-weight, so if I may say so myself: congrats, that’s great :)
Nice! Yeah I know tracking may not be “required” but for me it’s not always easy to quantify especially on days when the weather is bad. I probably will be switching one day to a lower tech solution like a pedometer, given this article. Those are like $15.
Exercise social media
You mean, like publicly sharing one’s stats and achievements?