This week, a First Opinion essay personally attacked me.
Well, at least it felt that way.
Samantha Kleinberg, the Farber chair associate professor of computer science at Stevens Institute of Technology, wrote an incisive piece titled, "Americans are obsessed with health and fitness tracking. It's time for a data diet." Kleinberg argues that we're drowning in health and fitness data that doesn't tell us anything. (Using "data" as a singular noun still makes my eye twitch just a tiny bit — I minored in Latin in college.) "Data creates the illusion of control, but the reality is often confusing, distracting, or downright demoralizing," she writes. The "distracting" part is what really nailed me, particularly when Kleinberg got to this part: "The man I saw recently flailing his arm during a meeting every time his smartwatch vibrated might have been tricking his device into thinking he was walking around, but he wasn't making himself healthier or happier."
At 10 minutes to the hour, I often feel a little buzz on my wrist, and I know what it means before I even look: I've been stationary, and smartwatch is nagging me to "stand up and move around for a minute." And I obey. I usually try to do something a little productive in that time: grab the laundry from the basement and bring it upstairs, sweep or vacuum a little, do some squats or wall push-ups. But sometimes I'm lazy and just walk around, waving my arms until my husband says "What are you doing?" and my watch gives me the satisfying, albeit slightly condescending, message "You did it!"
After reading Kleinberg's article, I'm trying to cut down on tricking my device, because she's right: While I think standing up and dancing around briefly isn't a bad thing, it also doesn't make me healthier. But I confess: It does make me a teensy bit happier.
Also in First Opinion this week: My colleague Tara Bannow, who has an absolutely adorable baby, wrote a First Opinion (!) about her nightmarish experience trying to find a place to pump at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this week. Before she arrived, her JPM contact assured her that there would be a hotel room set aside for breastfeeding parents. But every time she went to the designated spot, the room was locked. She managed to actually get in just one time; otherwise, she had to pump in the bathroom. As Tara points out, this is a sign of something much bigger than inconvenience for one reporter: "JPM is the industry conference. Its lack of planning is indicative of the health care industry's failure to give women opportunities to occupy positions of power."
In another important essay, Janelle Goodwill of the University of Chicago writes about how the Black youth suicide crisis intersects with another major problem: "[A]t a time when they are arguably needed most, Black social workers face stringent barriers to earning full clinical licenses." Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire argues that Congress needs to reauthorize the SUPPORT Act to help people with opioid use disorder. Emergency physician Jay Baruch tackles the problem of violence in the ER, pointing out that security and safety are not exactly the same thing. Cost isn't the only reason why Medicare doesn't cover weight loss drugs. Why the NIH's designation of people with disabilities as a health disparity population is such a big deal. And nurse managers are facing particularly high levels of turnover and burnout.
Recommendation of the week: I just finished the excellent 2016 novel "Marrow Island" by Alexis M. Smith, which is set in an alternate present in which an earthquake devastated the Pacific Northwest in the '90s. "Marrow Island" follows a journalist visiting a friend in an eco-community (or is it a cult?) trying to remediate a small island that was the site of an environmental disaster during the quake. It's beautifully written and well plotted.
Got questions about writing for First Opinion? On Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 2 p.m. Eastern, I'll be holding "office hours" on STAT+ Connect, our subscriber-only platform. Join me!
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