This weekend I ran a half marathon in Ocean City New Jersey with eleven of my friends. By the time I had traveled home from New Jersey, there were multiple Facebook posts, pictures, and statuses written about the race. Even though Facebook has some negative aspects, it has some good qualities. My mom, dad, and sisters who were unable to attend were able to stay updated on the race through social media from various locations around the world. Not only is it fun for my family to see the things I accomplished with my friends this weekend, but it is fun to share your accomplishments with the rest of the Facebook world. For those of you also have a love for that high you get while running can attest that the fact that no one is ever more proud of you than yourself when you finish a good run. However, there is a tremendous amount of pride I get from seeing other people feel just as happy for me by commenting on Facebook. Call me selfish, but all twelve of us worked hard to finish the race this weekend and I love that we can share our accomplishment with others. I am not one to post status updates, especially about myself, but my sisters and friends tag me in them. This in fact, is just as gratifying and you do not even have to write about yourself.
The world of social media has opened many doors in the world of exercise. As much as we all feel accomplished from this race, seeing other people's times posted on the race's page will do nothing more than create a sense of urgency to do another one. With obesity and unhealthy lifestyles more prevalent than ever, it is not a bad thing that exercising has become more and more competitive due to social media. According to
http://healthyamericans.org/obesity/ more than one-quarter of health care costs are now related to obesity and obesity rates have more than doubled since 1980. Social media has made it very easy for races, sports clubs, teams, and other athletics to set bigger and better standards for themselves.
I will admit, there are many negative results from Facebook but I think in the world of HEALTHY competition, Facebook helps to keep users abreast of their competitors' state of shape.
Below is a picture of a few members of the group after our race:-)
I am #obsessed (haha) with this blog post. I too am dedicated to communicating and endorsing healthy lifestyle practices and information to anyone who will listen, and social media helps us get our word out to great, great lengths.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the positive side of social media. It helps my parents check-up on my sister and I while we are in college, and it helps me feel close to those friends who have gone off in other directions of life.
One minor set-back is the fact that some people, whom we may not ever want to see again, can see our information easier. This can be an issue. My old highschool gym teacher just tried "friending" me on Facebook. There is no one else I'd rather forget than this guy..
I think this post brings a good point to the surface. Although there can certainly be negative aspects to Facebook and other social media sites, it is true that there are important positive aspects as well.
ReplyDeleteAllowing family and friends around the world to be a part of your life by viewing pictures and posts written about the race is a great way to keep in touch.
Beyond that, it is a great source of motivation. Especially with the point of obesity and negative health problems, the motivation of seeing other lead healthy lifestyles and encouraging others to do the same is a wonderful way to take advantage of Facebook.
First of all, congratulations on your half marathon! That is such an accomplishment. You bring up some great points and touch on one of the main benefits of Facebook-- the ability to have a sharepoint for your passions and experiences. SM sites such as Facebook creates a one-stop shop for us to share stories and content about the things we care about, with the people we care about. For you, this is clearly your passion for exercise, and an accomplishment such as a marathon should be shared! Great job :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations--what an outstanding feat! I think you're right when you say that social media definitely allows us an outlet to get recognition and credibility for the positive things we do in life. I think there's a way to promote such things on social media without coming across as narcissistic. For example, my sister has tweeted photos of portrait drawings she does. She's a very good artist so it is a great outlet for her to share her work and get the recognition she deserves. Social media can be very gratifying in the feedback it provides.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your half marathon! My mom is an avid runner and social media has changed the way we cheer her on when she runs marathons. This year, she ran the Boston marathon and I was not able to attend because I was in school. However, my Dad and my sister went to watch and were posting on Facebook and Twitter the entire time. When members of my family tweeted words of encouragement, my sister would write them on a dry erase board and hold them up when my mom ran by. Social media allowed all of us to be cheerleaders for my mom even when we were not all in Boston. Ten years ago when she was running marathons, we would see pictures from a Kodak disposable camera a few weeks after the race. In April of this year, we got live updates and Twitpics. Social media is definitely impacting the world of marathon running!
ReplyDeleteIt is awesome you are so motivated! I can understand the sense of feeling proud and like to see people keeping up-to-date with what is going on. The same thing happens with THON, people are on Facebook, Twitter, ect. posting things about THON and what is happening. Of course you are proud of yourself, but when you are done and see that other people have interest in what you are doing gives you a sense of accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing a half marathon. I admire you for having the motivation to go out with your friends and complete it. You brought up an interesting point on how social media can be used as a positive way to post our accomplishments. I don’t think you should feel selfish at all. It is great to receive compliments and get recognition for what we accomplish in our lives and the positive feedback that we receive helps motivate us to continue doing it in the future. Social media is a great way to promote these accomplishments and to keep our peers informed and maybe they will become motivated to do the same in result to reading about yours
ReplyDeleteYou are totally correct in saying that social media has added a new dimension to sporting and other life-events. It is fun to quickly share photos and updates with multiple friends and family. It is also great to have 2-way interaction during these events; for example, I'm impressed by the way Brittany cheered on her mom via Twitter and a whiteboard!
ReplyDeleteHowever, to say that Facebook has created more competition is a huge oversimplification. Competitive people create competition. Even without Facebook, they would still seek each other out, still track each other's performances, and still aim to be better than the rest. It's possible that Facebook has made tracking other runners slightly easier, but it has not made the competition any more difficult. For 5000+ years, people have aimed to be the best they can be; they do not need social media to set goals.