Wellness Wednesday: The Flash Mob that Rocked Herty Field

The TED-MED speaker scared me.  Over the course of civilization, life expectancy increased.  Knowledge about medicine and health practices helped.  But a big contribution to additional life span was improved diet.  And as the talk continued, the line on the graph kept going up.  Then it leveled off.  Then …  it was uncertain.

Soon it could be that the average number of years American’s live could drop.  Why?  Obesity.  Now, according to the CDC, over a third (35.7%) of US adults are obese.  Sixty-five percent of Georgia adults are either overweight or obese.  And being obese makes you more likely to die sooner.  The University of Georgia has committed to exploring ways to address the obesity epidemic.

In the NMI this year, we are investigating the ways new media technology can help individuals make better health decisions to live a fit lifestyle.  In our Introduction to New Media (NMIX2020) students are working this semester on healthy technology ideas.  And last week, we made the idea of getting health real.  All 250 students in the class attended a “flash mob” workout on Herty Field.  It was just one way to help these young people understand the types of exercise necessary to live a healthy life.
And by the end of the workout, some students realized just how hard that is. But by end of the semester, the 15 student teams will have developed their own technological solution to making healthy choices a little easier.

For additional information and photos of the event, check out the coverage in The Athens Banner Herald, The Red and Black, and Grady Newsource.