Some days, I think the website Jezebel is just looking for things to be pissed off about. Seriously, the focus of their outrage some days is so ridiculous that all you can do is just roll your eyes at the stupid. However, today the dumb went into overdrive.
You see, Google Maps did away with its feature that would show you just how many calories you would burn if you walked a route instead of driving it, and how many … mini-cupcakes you worked off.
Google has already killed a short-lived feature that showed users how many calories they’d burn if they decided to walk somewhere instead of, say, take the bus or drive. Horribly, it also took the extra step (sorry) of notifying you how many mini-cupcakes you’d worked off in the process. It did not, shall we say, go well.
…
First of all, mini cupcakes? That’s exactly the sort of snack a gaggle of Soylent-chugging gym nerds eternally cloistered in the amniotic sac of a Google conference room would assume we on the outside are shoveling into our maws, taking breaks only to unlock our car doors or use our sticky fingers to order more mini cupcakes. Imagine the high-fives when Steve came up with that one.
Quantifying a vague measure like calories into something that people can understand is … bigoted? How dare a company try to combat the obesity epidemic in this country!
Evans prattles on about those who are dealing with eating disorders, which might be a fair cop … if two-thirds of all Americans weren’t overweight.
Either way, the feature has been disabled by Google because of the outcry. Frankly, just including a way to turn the feature off would have changed much of that outcry. But what’s so horrible about quantifying calories into a food that everyone knows? Particularly one that people associate with being unhealthy, anyway?
Mini-cupcakes worked because they’re small, which means the count will be higher and thus more motivating. It’s not rocket science here.
But, for folks like Evans, obesity isn’t the problem. It’s hurting people’s feelings.
Health is overrated, anyway.
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