I don’t think anyone anticipated the impact Fitbit would have on society, but it has become a necessity for every college student. Women and men alike are showing off their Fitbit on their wrists. Now that you’ve become accustomed to having your wrist adorned with this piece of technology, you’ve realized all its pros and cons in your life.
You feel naked if it's not on. You have it on every day, at almost all times of the day. Sometimes you even sleep with it so you can track your sleeping, which is an extremely interesting feature. You walk around campus with your head down and feel like everyone is staring at you because you don’t have it on. Some of you even convince yourselves to take a quick drive home to go put it on.
This is your normal everyday jewelry, so what about when you dress up? You want to wear it when you are going downtown because you want those steps for all the dancing you’re doing, but you want to wear cute bracelets too and sometimes the Fitbit just doesn’t go with your outfit. We all know that sneaky person who straps it to their ankle instead where no one can see it. This has to be the biggest struggle of the Fitbit. And Fitbit has an answer! Why not just get a Tory Burch bracelet that allows you to slip your Fitbit flex inside?
There is competition, do not deny it. You and your friends check your steps and tell each other how many you have. You reach 10,000 steps before 2 p.m., you are bragging to all who will hear. The fact that we are trying to compete for fitness not with others, but with ourselves, is amazing. With everything that goes on in college we don’t always have time to focus on our physical health and this one simple thing helps us to quickly keep track of what we do during our normal day. It makes us rethink taking that elevator to the third floor and take the stairs instead.
The Fitbit has become so important that schools, universities and high schools are using them as part of the curriculum for fitness classes. What is even more revolutionary though is the fact that there are universities requiring each student to wear one so the school can track their steps and heart rate. This is helping with universities being able to target students who have eating disabilities and get them the help they need. It is also allowing those who struggle with different health problems to get the attention they need.
There is an app on your phone to track your bottles of water you drink and the calories you take in daily. All you have to do is scan the barcode or look up your meal. It has caller ID, you can set alarms, and your personal weight progress can be tracked.
Can you believe the small piece of plastic on your arm is changing lives? Yes it is helping you to be fit and you can see the impact it makes in your life and your friends, but it is doing so much more. Not just college students use these, either. Adults, teens and children are all making America healthier one step at a time.
