What ic in ac
I first wrote about AC back in July.
I changed my routine slightly last night. Instead of plugging my phone in to charge where I normally do, I left it in a different room. That meant at 1:57 AM I walked a few steps from that other room with my phone. And that act of walking, those 12 or so steps, earned me 1 point on AC. Why is that significant? Because I just, without any effort, broadcasted to my followers the fact that I’m awake. I would never txt everyone I know and say “Hi, I happen to be awake at 1:57 AM” but with AC, which constantly tracks how many steps I get a day, that just automatically happens. But that’s just 1 example.
My friend has a very normal routine of getting a lot of steps each day at the same time. I know M-F between 8AM and 10AM at the latest, my friend Exercise Joe always has at least 500 points. One day it’s zero! The next day, also low number, what’s going on? I txt my friend and find out what’s new in his life.
I’m sitting at my desk at 3PM and I haven’t done very much excerise all day. I’m at the bottom of my list of friends I’m following on AC. I get up, go for a long walk around the city, and pass 10 people. I high five each one.
It’s late at night and I notice my friend hasn’t moved all day. I send him a high five anyways.
AC is all about embracing being in a daily, public contest with the amount of exercise you are actually getting in comparison to your friends. And all that entails.
Turns out what it entails is an incredibly powerful way to motivate humans to exercise (a good thing right?) but also…
A whole new social dynamic between groups of friends. Could you fake the data on AC? Absolutely. But can you imagine purposely lying over and over to your friends because you want to win a silly little contest that much but can’t actually do the exercise? Anyone who does that will be spotted by their friends. Your friends will know if you post bullshit numbers.
Also, AC is a point system vs. purely number of steps. Points take into consideration the height and weight of the person and the number of calories burned. AC works across all fitness trackers (FitBit, Jawbone, Strava, etc.) and across all your friends (both Android friends AND iOS friends.)
TLDR: sign up for AC and embrace a somewhat creepy feeling of being “watched” by all your friends for calories burned but realize it motitvates you in a fun way to get more exercise while simultaneously introducing all sorts of new social norms about all your friends having this information about you, 24/7.
