This article examines the cause-effect relationship between technology and childhood obesity.

just as cars run on fuel and refrigerators run on electricity, people run on calories. calories are units of energy that we take in when we eat and drink. physical and mental activity burns off those calories, so we have to replenish the supply by eating and drinking again.

when we regularly take in more calories than we burn off, the result is excess body fat—in medical terms, obesity. of course, all people have some body fat; the ideal amount differs for each individual and is determined by height, weight, and similar factors.

in recent decades, the rate of childhood obesity in the united states has risen to alarming heights. in 1980, only 7% of american children and 5% of american teenagers were obese. by 2012 those percentages had jumped to 18% and 21%.

many people blame technology as the chief culprit for the childhood obesity spike—for two reasons. first, the digital revolution continues to encourage a sedentary lifestyle instead of a physically active one. second, technology is indirectly responsible for all the harmful foods we eat.

technology in the entertainment industry has created untold thousands of couch potatoes. instead of taking a brisk walk to the newsstand for the paper, we sit at our desks and read the news online. instead of riding our bikes downtown to meet friends at the movies, we stream the film on our laptops without getting up from our desks. children don’t go outside and play as often as they did before the digital revolution; instead, they sit and stare at images or words on a screen. or their fingers fly over a computer keyboard as they gossip with their friends.

these habits have their advantages, but there’s no denying that they contribute to obesity.

technology is also to blame for much of what’s wrong with the american diet. what enabled the food industry to calculate precisely the amounts of sugar and salt that would make their flavored snack foods addictive? technology. what gave companies the ability to test-market new products, to poll significant numbers

of consumers, and to adjust recipes and ingredients in their laboratories? technology. what made it possible to advertise these sweet and savory goodies in every kind of media, so that consumers can’t avoid the “buy me! buy me! ” message? technology.

the lure of passive entertainment and the appeal of calorie-laden snack foods sing their siren songs to adults as well as children. but adults have enough knowledge and information about these issues to limit their consumption of synthetic snacks, and they have the option of working off the calories on the job or at the gym.

children and teens are more vulnerable for two reasons. first, they can’t usually control their own diets; they have to eat what’s provided for them. second, young people don’t necessarily know or understand that spending too much time online and eating too much of the wrong foods will cause them lasting harm.

the best way to burn off calories is by getting up and moving around! kicking a soccer ball, riding a bike, running races, swimming in a pool—all these activities are so much fun that nobody thinks of them as exercise. but they count toward the daily 60 minutes of exercise that the national institute of health recommends for all children! children and teens can work off calories, too. running errands, raking leaves, weeding the garden, taking out the trash—all these tasks combat the forces of obesity.
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