Lesiasel 1

Dominic Lesiasel
Ms. Lacey
English 113
15 march 2015
Get Moving, Live Longer!
Get moving, is the key to have a longer life. Everybody wants to have a long and
healthy life, but looking at our situations today, our life expectancy seems to become shorter than
its supposed to be. According to a book entitled, Health at a Glance, written by a group of
researchers led by Gaetan Lafortune stating that, In the United States, the gains in life
expectancy since 1970 have also been much more modest than in most other OECD countries.
While life expectancy in the United States used to be one year above the OECD average in 1970,
it is now more than one year below the average.(Lafortune 24) This fact should open our eyes
and make us realize that we are not a healthy nation. There are a lot of things that plays a big role
in our society that affect our health as a nation. One of the reasons of why we become like what
we are today is mainly because of the improvement in technology. Compared to the year 1970,
the society today are physically less active mainly because of technology. Most kids do not play
outside with their friends, most people tend to become more and lazier, and working is not as
hard as it used to be, all because of technology. Smartphones, Laptop, Internet, Video Games, are
examples of technology that may be the reason why our life expectancy level is falling.
Although the above statement may be true, we still have to find out why is technology
damage our society in a certain way. Technology may cause severe laziness in our society, but
technology can be positive aspects in life also. It offers an easy access to physical activity such
as fitness apps, online gyms, smart-gadgets, and fitness video games. These things promote daily

Lesiasel 2

physical activities, which can prevent obesity and improve our health, which then leads to a
prosperous and longer life.
Sure, we know that physical activity is an important aspect in our daily life, but its also
important for us to understand the physical activity and its benefits. According to Centers of
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults need, 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderateintensity aerobic activity (i.e., brisk walking) every week and muscle-strengthening activities on
2 or more days a week that work all major muscle group. (How much, CDC) these are the doses
we need in order to maintain and improved our health. Some of the benefits of physical activities
that are stated in the CDC websites are: control body weight, reduce risk of heart disease,
cancers, diabetes, strengthen the bones and muscle, improve mental health and mood, increase
the chances of living longer. (Physical Activity and Health) These benefits are the reason why
physical activity is an important aspect in our daily life.
It has a big role in maintaining and stabilizing our health. Physical activity is something
that everyone needs daily, in order for us to be able to improve our health. Today, more and more
people are lacking in doing daily of physical activity, and this leads to an increase in the nations
obesity rate. Technology may be the reason why less and less kids play outside with their friends.
Most people nowadays are too attached to their gadgets, which causes us to spend almost all of
our life in front of the screen. Technology may have impacted our lives negatively, but that does
not mean that it does not offer any positive aspects in our lives. With the way technology has
improved, promoting physical activity via technology has been a big thing now, thus daily
physical activity can be achieved by using technology.
Technology can be one of the greatest villains in our lives; it can control our lives without
us realizing it. One of the great example of what scary things that technology can do to our body

Lesiasel 3

is found in the movie Wall-E. Wall-E is a movie produced by Walt Disney Home Entertainment;
its an animated movie about how the human moved from earth to this massive spaceship.
Throughout the movie we can see how humanity relied so much on technology and causes them
to become lazy and obese. Couch potatoes, its the word the word thats best described the
people in the movie. Couch potato is the name people use to describe those who are lazy and
spend most of their time on the couch, watching television. Thats what the people in the movie
are the people in the movie has zero physical activity, they are obese (having excessive body fat)
people that only sits on their chairs every day, playing games, watch TV, and eat. Everything that
they do can be done while they are on the chair. As the movie continues, the captain realizes
something that the past captains have not seen before, it was how the ship has been controlling
them the whole entire time. Auto, the ships autopilot system was the one who controls the
human and causes them to become obese and not able to stand and walk. In some ways, Auto
kind of hypnotized the humans by using the entertainments and gadgets causing them to be in the
position where they are at now. After shutting down auto, the captain took the ship back to earth.
At the end, the human tried their hardest to stand and walk again. Wall-E shows how technology
can control peoples life and causes laziness in people.
Before we dig into more about technology, its important for us to understand our
surrounding environment today. Wall-E sends awareness that relates to obesity, how its rate has
increased massively overtime. When one talks about obesity, we have to be sure if we know what
obesity is. CDC defined obesity as someone who has the BMI of 30 or higher. Obese is worse
than being overweight. Its sad to know that our country struggles with this problem and even
sadder, is that the obesity rate in our children are increasing over time. Its sad to know that our
kids are struggling with not just the weight, but the diseases that come from being obese.

Lesiasel 4

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one third of the
adults in the US are obese. (Adult Obesity Facts) That is an approximately 78 million of adults
in the US, the more scary thing is that the number is still growing. Wall-E shows us that if we
dont try to make a change in some ways, just like in the movie, most people will turn into couch
potatoes in the future. The attachments that we have with todays gadgets and also fast food diets
will lead to us becoming couch potatoes. Just like the captain of the ship from Wall-E, we need to
snap out of these delusions that these smartphones today create. We need to be able to realize that
sitting on the couch the whole day will not benefits our health, and use todays technology for
better purpose.
Obesity has become one of the major causes of the shortened life expectancy in our
nation. We know that obesity is increasing in a scary way. According to Food Research and
Action Center, the obesity rate has been doubled since the 1970. (Overweight and Obesity in the
US) This is one of the major problems our nation has and people tend to ignore it. Obesity is
scary because it can lead to other diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol,
and others. It may look harmless, but as a matter of fact is one of the most causes of death in the
nation. We need to find a way to fight this problem, and physical activity is one of the most
effective ways to prevent obesity.
Obesity may be one of the problems that technology brings, but although technology is
portrayed as a negative thing in mans life, the health departments are starting to use technology
to promote daily physical activity. Its a future trend of physical activity. The Internet revolves
around everybodys life, with the way technology and internet is, the best way to promote
physical activity to the society that are inactive is to use the internet, and technology. There are a
lot of gadgets, devices, and only gyms that are one touch away from us. Some of the example of

Lesiasel 5

that is Nike+ Fuelband, a bracelet looking device that tracks an individuals steps, caloric burn,
and a fuel burn. Its also fun because they can compare their results with everyone around the
world who uses the device also, via internet.
The future trend of physical activity is happening now. There are a lot of online gyms out
there with decent memberships prices, mostly starting from $10/month. Online gym offers
fitness classes that they usually offer at the gym by recording the workout in video form, so that
those members who are at home or their workplace, or wherever, able to watch it while doing
their physical activity. Crunch Live, the gym box, gym cube, wello, and a lot more, these are
examples of online gyms. Each online gym targeted different people, some targets people in their
20s, some may target a more mature people like those who are in their late 30s. Online makes it
easier for you to reach your goals, and it is really convenient because people with little free time
can still be able to work out and do their daily physical activity at home, or wherever they want
to. The other aspect that also big in todays society is fitness applications that can be found in
our smartphones applications store. Some of the examples of the top fitness apps are, FitBit, the
Johnson & Johnson Workout, My Fitness Pal, and Zombies Run!. These apps vary in prices,
some are free, and some can go up to $10 in purchase. These apps promote physical activity like
never before. These apps promote physical activity to the users, while making the users feel like
theyre playing a video game, competing against their friends. Its a new approach that resulted
in more users participating in daily physical activity. These apps proved that thru technology,
people can be more active.
Also, there are also gaming systems that comes out with their own fitness/sport games.
For example, The Kinect, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation Move, each has games that promotes
physical fitness, whether it is dancing, yoga, aerobic work outs, sports, and other things. Its a

Lesiasel 6

great way to promote physical activity to the kids, and encourage gamers to move around and be
active daily.
The health promotion has evolved from time to time because of technology. Started with
DVD player, the health department uses CD to promote physical activity. Some of the examples
are Insanity, P90X, R.I.P.P.E.D, and others. These are some timed program, meaning this
program is only for temporary, like insanity, it is a sixty day workout program. After the DVD,
physical activity is also being promoted in the internet, for example YouTube videos, where
people share their workout routines so that other people can watch and follow. There are a lot of
personal trainers who uses YouTube to attract more clients. Now that smartphones are
everywhere, there are also apps that are used to increase our fitness level, and most of these are
free. Over time, technology keeps on growing; this leads to more products being made.
According to ABC news, there several of new tech-savvy workouts wear for 2015. These
technologies help to maximize the workout. (News) There are a lot of new tech savvies that are
available to us, for example, adidas miCoach sports bra, a bra that can monitor your heart rate
and send all the fitness data to your smartphones. The other example is the Athos Carpi, Athos
are gears that can be worn and it acts like a personal trainer, it has a sensor in the shirt or short
that can read our muscle activity. It comes with an athos core, it contains the electronics and
intelligence to collect and interpret your bio signals, sending your information to your mobile
device via Bluetooth. (Athos) These are some of the examples of how todays technology helps
promote physical activity, and how it is used to maximize the workout.
Technology may be one of the causes of the increase rate of obesity in our country, but
with these health promotions thru the internet, our phone apps, and the video games, its proven
that thru technology we can promote physical activity and encourage people to stay active.

Lesiasel 7

Studies have shown that thru technology and internet, one does can be physically more active
than those who are without them. A quote from the conclusion of one of the research study done
on physical activity and technology, A fully automated Internet and mobile phonebased
motivation and action support system can significantly increase and maintain the level of
physical activity in healthy adults (Hurling). Out of the research that theyve done, Murray
came up with the conclusion that says that the internet and smartphones are not bad. People may
think that to be able to increase our physical activity, we have to get away from the internet or
our smartphones because they are one of the reason why we become less active, but thats not
always the case. Murray studys proof that technology can be used to help us to become more
and more active every day. This is the evolvement of promoting physical activity by using the
internet and technology.
Motivation and support system is important in health promotion. These two aspects are
important because health promotion will not work without having a self-motivation to change
ones lifestyle and get involve in doing physical activity. Fighting obesity is a fight that is hard to
fight, because changing a habit of a person require time and a great self-motivation, and the
environmental support. Todays technology help those who are fighting obesity in a big way,
because thru the internet, ones will realize that there are millions of people out there fighting the
same fight as they are, hence it motivates them to change and become more active.
Technology allow us to be able to share and promote health promotion faster, thus leads
to improvements of ones daily physical activity. Being able to compete with other people and
trying to beat their goals provide a great motivation to people and create a more healthy society.
Although it may be too tiring and hard, its full of benefit for our future. Wall-E is an example of
what we would look like if we dont do any physical activity in our lives, and that view of us is

Lesiasel 8

not great. Obesity, laziness, and being too dependent on technology for bad reasons, leads to a
depressing life, like the life of humans that was shown in the movie. Exercise is important to our
life and itll prolong our life if we are active every day.
Last but not least, after learning about the importance of physical activity, the
improvement in our technology, and the health of our society today, we learn that we need some
changes in our life. As of now, our lives are like those people in Wall-E, who enjoy sitting all day
looking at screens and press buttons. We are all couch potatoes. It is sad to hear, but it is the
truth, and truth can be hurtful sometimes. But that is not the end of the story, like the captain in
the movie wall-e; we can do something about these sad truths and be the change, a change to be
more active and to get off of our comfortable chairs. We need to challenge ourselves and make
the positive change this nation, this world needs. Get moving, live longer!

Lesiasel 9

Works Cited
"Adult Obesity Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 9 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html>.
"Athos - Wearable Technology for Fitness." Athos - Wearable Technology for Fitness. Web. 16
Mar. 2015. <http://www.liveathos.com/apparel/technology>.
"How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need?" Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html>.
Hurling, Robert, Michael Catt, Marco Boni, Bruce Fairley, Tina Hurst, Peter Murray, Alannah
Richardson, and Jaspreet Sodhi. "Using Internet and Mobile Phone Technology to
Deliver an Automated Physical Activity Program: Randomized Controlled Trial."
Journal of Medical Internet Research. Gunther Eysenbach. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1874722/>.
Lafortune, Gaetan. Health at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators. 2013 ed. OECD, 2013. Print.
News, Abc. "The Hottest Tech-Savvy Workout Wear for 2015." ABC News. ABC News
Network. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/hottest-tech-savvy-workout-wear-2015/story?id=27961
053>.
"Overweight and Obesity in the U.S. Food Research & Action Center." Food Research Action
Center Overweight and Obesity in the US Comments. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
<http://frac.org/initiatives/hunger-and-obesity/obesity-in-the-us/>.
"Physical Activity and Health." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease

Lesiasel 10

Control and Prevention, 16 Feb. 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.

<http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/health/index.html?s_cid=cs_284>.
WALL-E. Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2008. Film.