Fitness trackers often privilege steps over strength, rest and context, which can leave some users with a distorted view of health.
运动手环往往将步数置于力量、休息和情境之上，这可能让一些用户对自己的健康产生扭曲的认知。
Many people in the UK now use apps, smartwatches or wearable devices to track their physical activity. Fitness trackers promise to help users become fitter, happier and healthier versions of themselves. For many people, they can be useful: a nudge to move more, a way to notice patterns, or a reminder that activity does not have to happen in a gym.
英国许多人现在使用应用程序、智能手表或可穿戴设备来追踪他们的体力活动。健身追踪器承诺帮助用户成为更强壮、更快乐、更健康的版本。对很多人来说，它们很有用：可以提醒人们多动起来，提供发现模式的方法，或者提醒大家运动不必在健身房进行。
But self-tracking devices do more than record behaviour. Through prompts, defaults, streaks, badges and automated feedback, they also shape it. There is good evidence that tracking can help some people become more active. But there are also growing reports of anxiety, shame and disordered eating among people who track closely.
但自我追踪设备的作用不仅仅是记录行为。通过提示、默认设置、连续记录（或“连胜”、徽章和自动化反馈），它们还会塑造行为。有充分的证据表明，追踪可以帮助一些人变得更活跃。但也有越来越多的报告指出，那些密切进行追踪的人群中出现了焦虑、羞耻感和饮食失调等问题。
This raises questions about how common these harms are and why they happen, which is what I have spent the past decade researching. Here are five reasons tracking can become harmful.
这引发了关于这些危害有多普遍以及为什么会发生的问题，这也是我过去十年研究的重点。以下是五个可能导致追踪有害的原因。
1. The fixation on steps
1. 对步数的执着
The 10,000-step target comes from a marketing slogan for a 1960s Japanese pedometer, and has no firm scientific basis as a universal target. Researchers continue to debate the ideal number, with some pointing to around 7,000 as a more realistic and beneficial target for many adults. Yet 10,000 steps remains widely treated as a badge of good health.
“一万步”的目标源于20世纪60年代日本计步器的营销口号，作为一个普遍目标，它缺乏坚实的科学依据。研究人员仍在争论理想的步数，一些人认为对于许多成年人来说，大约7,000步是一个更现实和有益的目标。然而，一万步仍然被广泛视为健康的好标志。
The trouble is that a single target cannot fit everyone. It can also distort what people think activity is worth. A tracker may misread wrist movement, or fail to capture cycling, swimming or strength training properly because these do not look like stepping.
问题在于，单一的目标无法适用于所有人。它还可能扭曲人们对活动价值的认知。计步器可能会误读手腕运动，或者无法正确记录骑自行车、游泳或力量训练等活动，因为这些活动看起来不像走路。
This means trackers often privilege what they can easily count. Steps are visible, while strength work, mobility, Pilates, rehabilitation and recovery can appear less important, even though they may be exactly what someone needs. This can give users a skewed sense of what counts as worthwhile movement.
这意味着计步器往往偏爱那些容易计算的运动。步数是可见的，而力量训练、活动度、普拉提、康复和恢复等可能显得不那么重要，尽管它们可能正是某人所需要的。这可能会让用户对何为有价值的运动产生一种偏差的认知。
2. Movement loses its joy
2. 运动失去乐趣
The hardest part of becoming active is making it a habit that lasts. Chasing a target can work against that if it turns movement into a chore rather than something enjoyable. The point becomes closing a ring instead of noticing what your body can do.
养成持续的习惯是变得活跃最难的部分。如果追逐目标让运动变成一项任务而不是享受，反而会适得其反。重点变成了完成一个环形记录，而不是留意身体能做到什么。
Research suggests that repeatedly failing to meet goals can lead people to abandon both the device and the habits they were trying to build. Enjoyment helps habits stick, while external metrics can erode the internal motivation to move.
研究表明，反复未能达到目标可能会导致人们放弃设备以及他们试图建立的习惯。乐趣有助于养成习惯，而外部指标则会侵蚀内在的运动动力。
So the next time you head out, try leaving the numbers alone. Take a friend, put on a podcast, or call your mum. When you feel satisfied, go home. The activity still counts, and over time it may help you reach your goals without making the numbers the only measure of success.
所以下次出门时，试着忽略那些数字。带上朋友、听播客，或者给妈妈打个电话。当你感到满足时，就回家吧。这项活动仍然算数，并且随着时间的推移，它可能帮助你实现目标，而不会让数字成为衡量成功的唯一标准。
3. The more-is-more approach
3. “越多越好”的方法论
Many devices still make “more” feel like the default measure of success. The prompts are persistent, the summaries often feel like gentle reproaches, and the clearest currency is usually steps.
许多设备仍然让“更多”成为衡量成功的默认标准。提示是持续不断的，总结报告往往让人感觉像是在温和地指责，而最清晰的指标通常就是步数。
What this often misses is ability, skill and context. Do you know how much exercise you need? What kind of movement might cause injury? Can you interpret your own VO2 max data? These competencies are often taken for granted, but many people have never had the chance to build them.
这些方法经常忽略了能力、技能和情境。你知道自己需要多少运动量吗？哪种运动可能会导致受伤？你能否解读自己的VO2 max数据？这些胜任力往往被视为理所当然，但许多人从未有机会建立它们。
Our research shows that people are most vulnerable to harm when they are left to manage with assumptions already made for them. They may hand their judgement over to the device and accept whatever it tells them. Yet the device may not know enough about whether you are recovering from illness, short on sleep, injured, newly active or pregnant to interpret today’s data safely.
我们的研究表明，当人们只能根据预设的假设来管理自身时，他们最容易受到伤害。他们可能会将判断权交给设备，并接受它告诉他们的任何信息。然而，该设备可能不知道你是否正在从疾病中恢复、睡眠不足、受伤、刚开始运动或怀孕，因此无法安全地解读今日数据。
4. The default user does not exist
4. 默认用户不存在
Much of the design and marketing of these devices is aimed at a standard, average consumer. But research repeatedly shows that this person does not exist. We differ in our bodies, histories, goals and circumstances, so asking everyone to squeeze into the same mould is poor design.
这些设备的许多设计和营销都针对的是一个标准、普通的消费者。但研究反复表明，这样的人根本不存在。我们在身体、历史、目标和环境方面各不相同，所以要求每个人都适应同一个模具，是糟糕的设计。
The problem is the body imagined by the device: often able-bodied, non-pregnant, already confident with exercise and free to prioritise activity every day. Some defaults also follow narrow social norms, often built around male bodies, and amplify questionable ideas about health and beauty.
问题在于设备所设想的“理想身体”：通常指健壮、未怀孕、已经对锻炼充满信心并能每天自由安排活动的体型。一些默认设置也遵循狭隘的社会规范，往往围绕男性身体构建，并放大了关于健康和美的可疑观念。
Think of BMI, which can penalise muscular bodies and treat perfectly healthy women’s bodies as problems to be solved. Similar assumptions can be baked into self-trackers when they nudge users towards weight loss by default or reinforce dated ideals about size and ability. At their worst, they can push some people towards over-exercising or under-eating, with real damage to body and mind.
想想BMI指数，它可能会惩罚肌肉发达的身体，并将身体健康的女性视为需要解决的问题。类似的假设可以被内置到自我追踪器中，当它们默认推动用户减肥或强化过时的尺寸和能力理想时。在最坏的情况下，它们可能促使一些人过度锻炼或饮食不足，对身心造成真正的伤害。
5. It blames you when things go wrong
5. 它在事情出错时指责你
Sedentary living is a society-wide problem. Yet trackers often frame inactivity as a matter of individual willpower. That can draw attention away from the conditions that shape how much people move: safe streets, time, money, caring responsibilities, disability, local facilities and access to green space.
久坐不动的生活方式是一个社会性的问题。然而，运动追踪器往往将缺乏活动描绘成个人意志力的问题。这可能会分散人们对影响其活动量的实际条件的注意力：安全的街道、时间、金钱、照顾责任、残疾状况、当地设施和绿色空间的可及性。
Many people report feeling pressure from the device. When life gets in the way of their targets, they may feel shame, failure, or give up altogether.
许多人报告说，他们感受到设备带来的压力。当生活阻碍了他们的目标时，他们可能会感到羞耻、失败，甚至彻底放弃。
Research shows that people use these devices for a wide range of reasons and goals. That means support and personalisation are essential to making tracking safer. Devices should account for individual goals, experience and context rather than loading all responsibility onto the user, a familiar and unfair pattern across health and social care.
研究表明，人们使用这些设备的原因和目标是广泛的。这意味着支持和个性化对于让追踪更安全至关重要。设备应该考虑到个人的目标、经验和背景，而不是将所有责任都推给用户——这在健康和护理领域是一个常见且不公平的模式。
Some would call these harms unintended side effects. But they are also the predictable result of design choices that reward more, simplify health into scores and treat missed targets as personal failure.
一些人会称这些危害为意外副作用。但它们也是设计选择可预见的后果，这种选择奖励更多、将健康简化为分数，并将未达标的目标视为个人失败。
For users, the first shift is to treat tracking as information rather than instruction. A watch can tell you what it has measured. It cannot tell you what your body needs today.
对于用户来说，第一个转变是将追踪视为信息而非指令。手表可以告诉你它测量了什么。但它无法告诉你你的身体今天需要什么。
The bigger responsibility sits with developers. Trackers could place less emphasis on fixed step targets, make strength and non-step activity more visible, build in rest and recovery without guilt, and offer safer defaults for people with different bodies, abilities, health histories and goals.
更大的责任在于开发者。运动追踪器可以减少对固定步数目标的强调，让力量和非步态活动更明显，在不带负罪感的情况下内置休息和恢复功能，并为具有不同体型、能力、健康史和目标的人提供更安全的默认设置。
None of this means abandoning the technology – it means refusing to let a made-up number decide whether movement has counted.
这并不意味着要放弃这项技术——而是拒绝让一个虚构的数字来决定运动是否算数。
Sahar Bakr is a Trustee for Runspire Together
Sahar Bakr 是 Runspire Together 的受托人
