Thursday, October 06, 2016

compared to the "group"

The newest iteration of my cell phone's pedometer now compares my stats to a "group" of men. I don't know exactly who these men are, demographically speaking; the only clue is that my Samsung S Health program calls them "Men using S Health." I assume they're mostly Korean, and that this is an intranational, not an international, comparison. Then again, an international comparison might make the stats more sensible, especially if the "group" includes millions of sedentary Americans who have the same app but don't walk much and probably aren't aware of the app's existence.

By fusing my walking time and my step count, Samsung S Health figures out how I measure up to the other men in my "group." In the "Average Goal Performance" section of the app, there is the following stat:

246%

So by whatever alchemical metric that involves mushing together step count and walk time, I'm apparently doing 246% more, on average, than the other men in my group—and that's after having cut back on my time and distance. Yay, me...?



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