With the growing amount of smart phones all over the world, the more creative the apps are becoming. Many people are using apps such as Nike+ Training Club, MapMyFitness, or Fitmo to track and enhance their fitness levels. These apps could be used for a variety of aspects pertaining to your health. Many people use apps for calorie counting, water intake, or even tracking how many miles they have ran. According to a study done by the American Journal of Health Education, 31% of health apps are used for people to count the calories they intake (ex: Calorie Counter), and 38% of apps are used to actually track exercise (ex: MapMyRun). Could it be possible that your own body image and how you see yourself could affect your attitude toward these diet and fitness apps on smart phones? Researchers are saying that this very well is possible.
Found in the article Effects of Body Image on College Students'Attitudes Toward Diet/Fitness Apps on Smartphones, the researchers have determined that four factors related to body image are the key determinants of this attitude. These four factors pertain to your evaluation and orientation towards your appearance and your fitness level. These factors could also affect the way you see these apps as useful. The first factor is your appearance evaluation, which is your present state of your own appearance and how you see yourself. Researchers have found that this alone can negatively affect the way that you see these apps, hence not seeing them as useful. Secondly, the way you evaluate your physical abilities and your fitness state is called your fitness evaluation and this also can negatively affect the way you see these apps as useful. Appearance orientation is the development of desires to keep or improve your appearance and fitness orientation is the development of desires to increase your physical health and fitness level. Both appearance and fitness orientation positively affect the way you view the usefulness of diet and fitness apps. Finally, your personal perceived usefulness of diet and fitness apps positively predicts your future behavior and your intention to use these apps.
If you believe that the app will truly help you reach your fitness and appearance goals then the app could be very useful to you. But if you just have the app, and then delete it or stop using it, there is no chance that it is going to help. What the study finally concluded was that if a person has low confidence and low ability, they are more likely to use the diet and fitness related apps. These people most likely are the ones that are not satisfied with their image and want to change it any way possible. The conclusions from this study would make sense because if one isn’t happy with their image, they’re most likely going to change it. Vice versa, people who are content with their personal image will not be changing it drastically. Though, some people that are happy with their image may use these apps to maintain their current image. For example, if you lost a lot of weight and finally have made it to your ideal weight, you reasonably will do all to not stray away from this zone. From a blog by Melissa Seitz Life From Beyond the Screen, the researcher has found that fitness apps are more useful for the people that are looking to become more fit, and not the people that are already in good shape.
It is said that the people that are already fit are content with the workouts they have been doing, and most likely will not stray away from those habits. I experience a first hand account of this situation. Being a college athlete, I have typical workout habits. I would consider myself to be in shape and fit, therefore I do not tend to use fitness and diet apps. I am very content with the workouts I am given and do on a daily basis, and this would be the reason that for this period of my life I will not be using fitness apps.
This study also came to the conclusion that college students are among those most likely to try fitness apps, because we are more technologically sound. For example, parents are usually asking their younger children for help when it comes to technology because they are not as technically sound as our generation. A study actually done at the University of Maryland found 73% of respondents work out regularly, but only 4% use fitness related apps. This study shows that people can want to change their image and their orientation without the need for iPhone apps.
Research has proven that the first study showing the perceived usefulness of diet and fitness apps will help future research talking about the development of more apps and will further help the app developers. Women are among those most likely to use fitness and diet apps because women are “more sensitive” about their bodies and are more likely to go to extremes to change their image. This is something that app developers should take into account when creating new apps. The developers should direct their apps toward women, because the majority of their future users will be women.
Blogger Amar Sejdic said...
ReplyDeleteVery good structure of the post, and is relatable to many students in the class and across campus. Although, the formatting of the content is a bit hard to follow and doesn't keep the reader hooked into reading more about the article. The use of the three factors help organize the article on exactly what image you are trying to get across your audience. The reference of articles you posted can help give readers more information on the topic you are presenting which is a helpful factor. I think that you could conclude the article better by not necessarily stating that the developers should direct it only towards women, but possibly on making it easier for the older generations who are not as technically sound, as you mentioned. Women may use this app more than men, but its hard for a statistic like that to be evaluated on a precise measure. As college students, many of us are experiencing or have experienced the "freshman fifteen" and although students try their best to refrain from this gain, it is something we may turn to apps for help for. It is not what most students make a routine in their day to day lives and these apps become wasted storage on our smartphones. The graphics help provide an image on the statistics behind the material but doesn't necessarily state the type of people who are evaluated in the graph. The pyramid technique is well used, and really gets your point across in the first two paragraphs, and helps me as the reader, retain a lot of information on the use of fitness apps. It is very clear on exactly what specific audience you want to skim through your article and pick up on simple facts that may intrigue them to download one.
October 14, 2015 at 8:49 PM Delete
I found it very interesting that their are four certain factors can effect the way you see dietary or fitness apps usefulness. Appearance orientation and fitness orientation are key factors in the utilization of these apps. In order to want to improve your health and appearance you need to address that you're not where you want to be. Not identifying the problem is how appearance evaluation plays a huge role in negatively affecting the use of these apps. People are often very sensitive about themselves so they aren't quick to acknowledge that they could be doing better and therefore start using the apps.
ReplyDeleteYou did a very good job Identifying the problem and pointing to your findings and how those findings may positively or negatively affect students opinion’s on using fitness apps. Identifying with college students is definitely key when trying to advertise these types of apps. People our age are generally the most insecure about their health and appearances, they also have the most free time they will ever have in their life. This combination only means one thing. College students workout a lot. App creators should definitely focus on college students because we do in fact lead todays day and age in technological experience.
In future ePortfolio posts I would definitely suggest that you talk further about the study in more extensive detail. You did a great job of adding your own commentary to what you saw in the study, but in order for me to get a better understanding of why targeting certain groups to use dietary or fitness apps can positively affect both sides involved there needs to be more factual evidence involved. Overall I enjoyed reading what you had to say and found in very interesting. You did a good job of further backing up a subject that could have already been assumed by an outside source like myself. I enjoy reading things that I would have said, “yes, that makes sense,” by only reading the title. Your headline was explanatory and the link to the research helped me search for answers that you may not have provided.