Introduction- By DaNelle Bushnell
Do you spend eight hours a day sitting in a desk behind the screen of a computer? Or choose that candy bar for a snack instead of an apple? Would you like to learn how to make better choices pertaining to your health and work on a better you? Then you are in the right place and this blog might be just what you are looking for. We are the Healthy One’s and in the following posts on our blog, Fitness Feigns, you will learn some practical and easy ways for you to stay healthy and how to improve your overall well-being. We hope that each one of you will find our tips and inspirational stories helpful, encouraging, and applicable to your daily life.
It is no secret that the health and wellbeing of the members of our society are becoming less of a priority as other more important issues take their place. However, it is more important now than ever to focus on how technology influences our culture and everyday lives (Burnett & Marshall, 2003) A recent study found that adults who live in the United States spend an average of more than eight hours a day in front of a screen, whether it be a computer, the television, or other similar devices (Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 2008). These technological breakthroughs affect the well-being of their user’s (Bargh & McKenna, 2004) and can have a negative impact on the user’s health. The inactivity of being behind a screen all day can lead to both physical and physiological defects. One of which is obesity. To date, there are over 130 million American’s that are overweight and that number is on the rise (Heller, 2007). With numbers like these it is more important than ever to take into account the information that we have taken the time to provided in this blog.
The office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (www.healthypeople.gov, n.d) reminds us that when providing the public with useful information on ways to stay healthy and improving their well-being it is important to “reflect the realities of people’s everyday lives and their current practices, attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyles” (p. 3). With the way that technology has become implemented and integrated into our everyday lives (Burnett & Marshall, 2003) the following tips are both functional and practical. This blog provides you with information in three main areas of health and well-being:
- Ways To Stay Healthy: In the first portion of the blog you will begin to understand the major role that computer mediated communication plays in your health and well-being and discover that technology can actually be used to stay healthy!
- Useful Tips: This portion of the blog will give you some easy and applicable ideas for staying healthy and staying active even if you sit in a cubicle, in front of a screen for eight hours a day!
- Inspirational Stories: Sometimes you may feel alone and thank that this information is useless and a bunch of fluff but you may find that hearing real life testimonies might be help. You will discover that your personal relationships, the way your eat, how much you exercise, and various forms of technology can be used in a positive way to improve your health and help
References:
(2001). Healthy People 2010. Health Communication. Retrieved on April 22nd, 2009
from http://www.healthypeople.gov/document/HTML/Volume1/11HealthCom.htm
AFP. (2008). The Boys and Girl Club of
screens. Retrieved April 22nd, 2009, from
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.92e661444313b232e8931de00c29
c73b.431&show_article=1
Bargh, J. A., & McKenna, K. Y. A. (2004). The internet and social life. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 573-90.
Bargh and McKenna (2004) stated that they believe internet communication will change the social interactions that people have and internet communicators will be depressed and lonely. I do not agree with this simply because I communicate with a lot of people online that I would not otherwise. Bargh and McKenna (2004) then state that some believe that internet communication enables relationships to start or be strengthen. I agree with that statement because sometimes text messaging everyone in your phone book is not as easy as chatting with people online or emailing them because you do not have to reply right away. You can read the email/online message and respond when it is convenient for you.
ReplyDeleteBugeja (2005) states that electronic communication can have both a positive and negative effect on our relationships which may cause a feeling of displacement. Thurlow, Lengel and Tomic (2004) state that in order to define a community, “it’s important to separate the ways people try to describe what a particular community is actually like from the ways people promote or prescribe their own particular idea of what they think community should be like” (p. 108). Things such as blogging are similar to the homepages that Cheung (2004) talked about because Cheung (2004) stated that homepages are websites produced by people to display information about themselves, post pictures and blogs about certain types of subjects. Blogging, just like any other online communication, can help build positive relationships and images that help people to have healthy minds and interact with people.
References:
Bargh, J. A., & McKenna, K. Y. A. (2004). The internet and social life. Annual Review of
Psychology, 55, 573-90.
Bugeja, M. (2005). Interpersonal divide: The search for community in a technological
age. New York: Oxford.
Cheung, C. (2004). Identity construction and self-presentation on personal homepages:
Emancipatory potentials and reality constraints. In D. Guantlett & R. Horsley (Eds.), Web Studies (pp. 53-68). New York: Oxford.
Thurlow, C., Lengel, L. & Tomic, A. (2004). Computer-mediated communication: Social
interaction and the internet. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications