In early January, Oral Roberts University announced incoming freshmen would be required to wear Fitbit bracelets as part of a physical fitness requirement. The Oklahoma university had previously required that students document their aerobic workouts in a journal. This policy ignited controversy, however, from critics who stated requiring students to track their workouts could be harmful for those struggling with eating- or exercise-related disorders. The use of the technology has the potential to help students, but it also has dangerous potential in terms of health and security. Therefore, purchasing and wearing the device should not be a requirement for students at Oral Roberts or at any other college.
It is not bad that the school is providing students with a resource to promote good health, but the policy needs to be approached differently. Currently, it has the potential to aggravate exercise related disorders and eating disorders. Exercise addiction is a disease that is related to intensely regimented fitness routines, and it can be aggravated by technologies like Fitbit bracelets. Exercise addicts work out to a point where the exercise itself becomes unhealthy due to its severity. Additionally, many exercise addicts and people who have struggled with eating disorders are tempted to track their fitness regimes with intense precision, and the forced use of Fitbit bracelets could contribute to this compulsion. Many aspects of the program leave the door open for the technology to be used to aggravate a problem, rather than to promote health, as the school is hoping to do.
The institution could take many different routes to educate their students on health and wellness, without the use of Fitbits or journaling workouts. Currently, the Fitbits will be used for the Oral Roberts physical education requirement, through which every undergraduate must take a fitness course that includes reading, exams and a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity per week. Instead of requiring students to track their physical activity on their own time for a grade, the university should offer an increased variety of fitness classes with instructors to teach students about different workout types.
Also, a Fitbit tracks cardiovascular exercising, which leaves out many types of exercise such as weight training, pilates and yoga — all of which are good for the body but don’t reap the typical points-based benefits on a Fitbit. It would be more beneficial for students to work with different types of exercise to find out what works best for them individually. Fitness level is not an arbitrary number that can be applied to each person, and not every workout is useful for each unique person. The school could offer classes on how to cook and eat in a healthy manner on a college student’s budget and continue the physical fitness requirement and offer a variety of exercise methods to students. The monitoring in all of these situations could be done by teachers, rather than just via numerical standards to obtain grades. Fitbit bracelets can be helpful, but nobody should be forced to wear one to be graded at their educational institution.
A study done by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also brought up the security concerns related to wearable fitness devices like Fitbits. It determined that, though mobile fitness devices have reasonable security for their customers, they collect extra information from users, including the MAC addresses of nearby Fitbits and the manner by which Fitbit devices sync to a mobile apps using Bluetooth creates the possibility for third-parties to track the activities of users. The potential negative security implications related to the devices could be avoided, were they not mandatory. At least if students have a choice of whether or not to use the device, they will have more of an ability to control personal security. Though the Oral Roberts Fitbit requirement was conceptualized with good intentions related to student health, the program has the potential to cause more negative than positive effects. The technology is expensive, and high quality physical fitness requirements could be carried out without it at any school.
Carly Mulvihill is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at c.mulvihill@cavalierdaily.com.
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