Making Exercise Worth It

     Technological distractions exist everywhere. TV's, smartphones, radios, computers, etc. This have advanced our lives tremendously, but they have also inhibited it. What is the main thing children do when they get home? Do they go outside to play or do they sit down and watch TV or play a video game for hours? When I was a child, I was always outside. There was not much else to do besides reading, board games, puzzles, and maybe few cartoons I liked. Now, if one goes out in public, you are bound to see children as young as 2 years old with their eyes glued to a screen playing on app after app. Why run around outside and get a sweaty body when you can run around in your game and receive prizes? Children spend an average of 7 and a half hours a day in front of a screen. Due to the increase in technological advances, kids have increased in size. More than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese in 2012.
     Some parents combat this by making their kids eat a healthy diet. If the kid is already eating a healthy diet but is still not losing weight, the parents may try taking away all electronic devices and taking their kid to fun places to play. One has to ask themselves, what about those working parents that don't have the time to take away the devices and keep them away from their child? That's where the JOGO band and app/website comes in. How it works is the JOGO app is parent controlled and shuts down the apps on the child's phone, except for calling and texting making it as useful as a flip phone. The app runs on a point system. The only way to gain points is for the child to exercise and play a heart rate raising activity. For example, running, climbing on a jungle gym, swimming, etc. If it raises their heart rate, it's exercise. The amount of points needed for the child to earn daily is designated by a doctor so the parents can't over work or under work their child. Once the child reaches the goal set for them, they receive a password to open their phone so they can access their other apps as well as the internet. If the child needs to access the internet but is unable to reach the points for that day, there is a master password that the parents can give to the child. The points reset daily.
     A problem with the JOGO band is that it will be as if the words "fat" were branded onto the child's wrist. Growing up, there was nothing I feared more than bullies. in my school, and I just happened to be an easy target due to my lack of fashion knowledge. I cannot imagine the pain of being an overweight child. So a good way to avoid singling out the children who need the JOGO band the most would be if the school system required all children who attend classes there to wear them. That way, the kids can't tell who is "fat" and who is not by the JOGO band.