An Oklahoma University Is Making All Incoming Freshmen Wear Fitbits So They Don’t Get Fatter

Dillon Cheverere10 years ago

Oral Roberts University is mandating the use of Fitbit fitness trackers for all incoming freshmen students. The trackers will monitor the students’ daily physical activity, such as the number of steps taken, as well as their heart rates, either due to physical activity or the ingestion of amphetamines. The trackers will collect data when students are both on and off campus.

The data acquired by the Fitbits will be automatically submitted to the university and the students will receive grades based on that data. This concept is not new to Oral Roberts — prior to the implementation of Fitbits, students were required to log their daily activity and turn their reports over to the university for review.

From NBC News:

An Oklahoma university is taking a novel approach to fighting the “Freshman 15”: Require all incoming students to wear fitness trackers.

Oral Roberts University, a Christian university in Tulsa, announced earlier this month that all first-years must wear Fitbits — watches that track how much activity a person does. Their fitness data will be tracked by the school and will affect students’ grades.

While mandatory for all incoming freshman this year, Oral Roberts said it “has opened the program up to all students,” and said the campus bookstores have already sold more than 550 of the popular gadgets.

I’m all about the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, but this is a little Big Brother-ish, isn’t it? America is the fattest country on the planet because we’re free as fuck. Free to eat fast food after leaving the bars and free to lay around the entire next day and nurse our hangovers. That’s what American college students do.

Have fun in never-ending PE class, Oral Roberts students..

[via NBC News]

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