Firstly, thanks for posting this article, I found it raises an interesting yet sometimes overlooked point: what scientific basis do these apps have in reality?
I think it's apparent people trust their phones. When they're presented with data, it's implicit that it must be correct. You must have walked 12,121 steps - not one less or 50 more. It just...knows...right?
Yet, the mental anguish of presenting this data and actions/consequence that may follow; what decisions to people make upon seeing this information? Do they book a GP appointment because their smartphone says they must?
The Covid apps demonstrate this effect beautifully; apparently Bluetooth is such a well designed and implemented protocol people use it to judge whether to stay at home and isolate...As if I would ever trust what a smartphone says, there is not enough evidence and scientific backing to suggest data taken from sensors is even close to being accurate.
Yet these apps were flouted as a way to 'help stop the spread', 'protect your loved ones'.
We need legislation over any and all health apps, they need to prove their models and presented data is accurate (how the heck can it be? it's just a sensor, it doesn't 'know' anything).
Easiest solution: turn these apps off, even better if you can: get rid of your smartphone. It's become a hostile enemy spy, not in your favor, but prides itself on selling you to anyone who wants it and supports an insidious industry.
I'm getting used to not having mine with me all the time, I no longer use mobile telephony and mentally, it feels amazing.
In the future this will be considered a revolution, as today your phone wants to try and determine every faucet of your life...
Maybe it can estimate when I am likely to die, based on this 'data'?
Since the Covid apps where announced I tried to find convincing evidence that our current network of smartphones/bluetooth(s) are able to deliver (remotely) reliable contact tracing. From my limited technical understanding, it makes no sense. Never mind the privacy promises.
The only explanation I can currently imagine is this:
On population level, enough people following the app’s recommendations produces a net gain for the spread statistics, even if most recommendations are wrong or over-protective (“self-quarantine now!”).
Which would mean that it’s irrelevant whether the app “works” or is supported by scientific data because it’s just a device for political purposes and its surrounding narrative is, well, propaganda.
Edit: ... which also explains the probable bullshittery of iOS’s health metrics. The purpose of this feature is not to serve you truth. Its purpose is to serve its master (Apple). Maybe by making you feel good, by making you neurotic, by making you emotionally dependent on Apple’s devices, by transporting further belief in the omniscience of this magical little device that you cannot possibly repair yourself, etc. Pick your narrative.
This is one of the main reasons I haven't gotten an Apple Watch. I'm already a neurotic person; I know that having additional, detailed metrics about my daily health would not be healthy for me.
People are not perfect.
Measurements are not perfect.
I believe you can become a calmer person by learning to embrace either fact.
Yes, it’s hard to learn. I believe that with the help of a therapist, it can be done.
I say this as someone who’s been using the Apple Watch for a few years and like what it offers. Apple is not committed to making the average person exercise. It’s committed to pushing people to a world where everyone measures their self worth by the number of exercise minutes or the number of calories burned everyday.
> The Health app is merely feeling that I appear to be taking strides. It can't tell I'm on a bike.
Of course it can’t tell the difference. It’s the same with the watch too. Do some cooking or wash the dishes and it’ll happily count that as exercise...or to put it in its term “workout”. But this is to be expected of these devices.
> Yet the insidious nature of apps is such that you can't help but go back to them. Again and again.
That’s where people get stuck, especially after they get a wearable (like the watch) that’s always with them. And Apple isn’t making it any easier although it could do it. It took Apple five years to make the stand hour targets and exercise minutes targets configurable (this has been possible only in the recent watchOS 7). People have been asking for break days in the week, but Apple is just plain lazy to implement it and pushes you (“motivates”, in its parlance) to close your rings every single day and praise you for doing it without a break.
> I'm beginning to worry it's made me an even worse, more neurotic person.
> You see, it would, at any instance, tell me I was walking less than I did the day before. Or the week before. Even if it was a 0.1 miles difference, the scolding was painful.
This whole design is downright stupid, IMO. Apple shouldn’t treat all users the same. There are people who like to push the limits and keep going beyond. There are people who just want a little bit of push but not a constant push to become the next world class athlete. If there’s one thing that sows doubt in my mind that machines can learn, it’s that Apple Watch and Health can never learn that I just want a constant target week after week, month after month and year after year. But it will always try pushing me to do more every week. When I realized that it’s designed to kill me through exercise, I stopped accepting its suggestions for the Move Goal and bring it down to what I want. It just doesn’t listen and learn though.
Tell the machine what to do, and avoid having the machine tell you what to do. These machines aren’t smart enough.
Physical health, I would clarify. Those behaviors are not healthy at all and it's certainly not the phone's fault, as much as I would like to take a free shot at Apple.
When exercising, I mostly use the watch to tell me my real-time pace and distance. I don't have much confidence in it for much else. I don't need its faux praise.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 44.5 ms ] threadI think it's apparent people trust their phones. When they're presented with data, it's implicit that it must be correct. You must have walked 12,121 steps - not one less or 50 more. It just...knows...right?
Yet, the mental anguish of presenting this data and actions/consequence that may follow; what decisions to people make upon seeing this information? Do they book a GP appointment because their smartphone says they must?
The Covid apps demonstrate this effect beautifully; apparently Bluetooth is such a well designed and implemented protocol people use it to judge whether to stay at home and isolate...As if I would ever trust what a smartphone says, there is not enough evidence and scientific backing to suggest data taken from sensors is even close to being accurate.
Yet these apps were flouted as a way to 'help stop the spread', 'protect your loved ones'.
We need legislation over any and all health apps, they need to prove their models and presented data is accurate (how the heck can it be? it's just a sensor, it doesn't 'know' anything).
Easiest solution: turn these apps off, even better if you can: get rid of your smartphone. It's become a hostile enemy spy, not in your favor, but prides itself on selling you to anyone who wants it and supports an insidious industry.
I'm getting used to not having mine with me all the time, I no longer use mobile telephony and mentally, it feels amazing.
In the future this will be considered a revolution, as today your phone wants to try and determine every faucet of your life...
Maybe it can estimate when I am likely to die, based on this 'data'?
That'd be poetic.
The only explanation I can currently imagine is this:
On population level, enough people following the app’s recommendations produces a net gain for the spread statistics, even if most recommendations are wrong or over-protective (“self-quarantine now!”).
Which would mean that it’s irrelevant whether the app “works” or is supported by scientific data because it’s just a device for political purposes and its surrounding narrative is, well, propaganda.
Edit: ... which also explains the probable bullshittery of iOS’s health metrics. The purpose of this feature is not to serve you truth. Its purpose is to serve its master (Apple). Maybe by making you feel good, by making you neurotic, by making you emotionally dependent on Apple’s devices, by transporting further belief in the omniscience of this magical little device that you cannot possibly repair yourself, etc. Pick your narrative.
Fitbit is entirely built on the so-called bullshittery — gamification for personal fitness motivation.
Gamification is terrible, but gamification works.
Unfortunately, encrypted communication is being taken hostage by smartphones. I switched back from my dumbphone for this reason.
> The Health app is merely feeling that I appear to be taking strides. It can't tell I'm on a bike.
Of course it can’t tell the difference. It’s the same with the watch too. Do some cooking or wash the dishes and it’ll happily count that as exercise...or to put it in its term “workout”. But this is to be expected of these devices.
> Yet the insidious nature of apps is such that you can't help but go back to them. Again and again.
That’s where people get stuck, especially after they get a wearable (like the watch) that’s always with them. And Apple isn’t making it any easier although it could do it. It took Apple five years to make the stand hour targets and exercise minutes targets configurable (this has been possible only in the recent watchOS 7). People have been asking for break days in the week, but Apple is just plain lazy to implement it and pushes you (“motivates”, in its parlance) to close your rings every single day and praise you for doing it without a break.
> I'm beginning to worry it's made me an even worse, more neurotic person.
> You see, it would, at any instance, tell me I was walking less than I did the day before. Or the week before. Even if it was a 0.1 miles difference, the scolding was painful.
This whole design is downright stupid, IMO. Apple shouldn’t treat all users the same. There are people who like to push the limits and keep going beyond. There are people who just want a little bit of push but not a constant push to become the next world class athlete. If there’s one thing that sows doubt in my mind that machines can learn, it’s that Apple Watch and Health can never learn that I just want a constant target week after week, month after month and year after year. But it will always try pushing me to do more every week. When I realized that it’s designed to kill me through exercise, I stopped accepting its suggestions for the Move Goal and bring it down to what I want. It just doesn’t listen and learn though.
Tell the machine what to do, and avoid having the machine tell you what to do. These machines aren’t smart enough.
I opened the link expecting to read about some legitimate issue with iOS 14. The entire article is about one updated app on iOS 14, the health app.
The title should be "The new iOS 14 health app is driving me mad".
Also, I'm not clear on why the author wrote the post. It seems like an admission of being obsessive compulsive.
Just ignore the new features in the updated health app. Problem solved?