Sedaris

"It’s a Fitbit. You sync it with your computer, and it tracks your physical activity.”

It was the last answer I expected from a description of a wristwatch. Being a Luddite myself, I first learned about Fitbit from David Sedaris’s essay Stepping Out.

That gizmo sounds like our smartphone pedometer app that tracks walking, plus a push notification after certain milestones.

As David Sedaris points out, many people, and I happily include myself among them, like the push signal or tingle because it feels so good, not just as a sensation but also as a mark of accomplishment.

Sedaris is so obsessed with getting the e-batch that he hits thirty-five thousand steps a day. Then another e-batch for forty thousand. And forty-five thousand. Next, sixty thousand. And on and on.

The push notification can be addictive. You keep returning to the gadget, the way Ebenezer Scrooge would have done if there were electronic bank account in 1843. I can tell from my personal experience with the digital running app.

The prime example, of course, comes from Sedaris who was once devastated when his Fitbit died. He walked twenty-five miles but found that meaningless without the steps being counted and registered. Is this behaviour logical? No. Does it make sense if he ordered an immediate replacement? No. Did he experience withdrawal symptoms while waiting for the express delivery? Yes. Should he tear open the box as soon as he received his new Fitbit and went out racing, with his new Fitbit strapped on, to make up for lost time? Absolutely.