By: Annie Morgan
Should women track everything via health apps?
We are seemingly encouraged to track every calorie, workout, and now even our thoughts and mood.
There was some criticism of health apps. Most were primarily designed by men and the apps did not cater to the needs of women.
Silicon Valley has responded with some female-centric apps, but not all women are pleased with their offerings.
These new health apps have taken the digital world to a more personal level, and some women are not pleased.
Are these new generation of apps insulting and degrading women instead of being helpful?
Fertility Tracker
Women have been tracking their cycle long before apps came out.
Some track to determine if their cycle is regular, others track to avoid getting pregnant.
But once a girl becomes pregnant, many apps suddenly seem to drop women.
One Zero reported:
“Fertility apps like Glow help people work through fertility issues. Once your status changes to “pregnant” though, there’s a finality to this. Some Glow users in the community forum have reported all their previous data being deleted by default as soon as they change their status to “pregnant,” making it inconvenient when they still found that previous information useful.
Many pregnancy apps have also not been gracious to users who might experience problems bringing their pregnancy to term. Apps sell personal data to baby brands—regardless of how successful pregnancies are—that can then target ads toward people who have just experienced tremendous loss.”
The Glow app is free, but as one developer said, “if you are not paying for it, you are the product.” Which means, by giving a developer your most personal data, you are opening yourself up for targeted ads.
The last thing a woman who just lost a baby wants to receive are ads for baby products.
Mood Tracker
Women are often stereotyped as “moody” and emotional.
And now apps are developed to help women “track their moods.”
Do women actually sit there and document if they are angry, or sad?
Maybe some.
But others find it incredibly insulting that an app would be developed just to track how moody they are.
Pound Tracker
Women have constant pressure to maintain the perfect figure.
While eating healthy and working out are healthy habits both sexes should practice – often women are held to a higher standard.
Some women become so obsessed with tracking every calorie they can’t even eat their food until they put it an app.
But is this really the best way?
Another app even encourages women to edit their pictures to make themselves skinny – in an unnatural way.
The app is titled “SkinnyCam” as if being “skinny” should be the goal for every woman.
The Telegraph reported:
“They say the camera adds 10 pounds,” cries the SkinnyCam app, “take them back off with this easy-to-use iPhone app!”
Yes, this is an app for women to airbrush pictures of themselves, by simply pinching their fingers across a body region on a smartphone screen, and voila! They have dropped off 10 pounds.
The app incorrectly assumes all women want to be stick thin, but more than that, it encourages women to lose weight and promotes an unhealthy body image. Even the name ‘SkinnyCam’ makes being skinny sound like it should be every women’s ultimate goal. Well, I’m holding out for the LumpyAndProud Cam app.”
Ladies, the goal should be to make ourselves healthy – not skinny.
Taking care of our body should be something we all do – which includes drinking water, eating healthy, and working out.
But downloading an app to make ourselves “skinny”? No thanks, we’ll pass.
Ladies, have you heard of any of these apps before?
What are your thoughts on apps like these?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to share this article with your friends and family to let them know how these “health apps” are not friendly to ladies.
