Reception
As a device that sits on the wrist, the FuelBand has difficulty time-tracking activities that rely solely upon lower body movement (such as a spin class) and it does not fare well for resistance based activities including weight lifting and yoga workouts. The FuelBand is water-resistant, but not waterproof, thus it cannot be used for any in-water activities (e.g., swimming, wakeboarding, or surfing). FuelBand wearers have found that bumpy car rides can increase NikeFuel points[19] and that vigorous arm shaking also amounts to a significant point increase.
Michael Kim, who specializes in designing software to influence behaviours, critiques the FuelBand as not being sustainable in the long haul, saying, "Points and badges do not lead to behavior change."[20] On the other hand, a nutritionist professor at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) is quoted as saying, "Anything that motivates exercise is a good thing, it could be really useful for people that need the support", and despite finding the FuelBand a useful tool for maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle, she also points out the FuelBand neglects to take into account food energy intake.[21]
Because the Nike+ web community profile can be linked to both Facebook and Twitter, users can now share their results and accomplishments with their friends. This has the ability to lead to a greater chance for positive results because interaction and motivation from friends has proven to benefit workout habits. "A 2011 Pew Internet study found that 80% of Internet users look for health information online, 27% of U.S. Internet users had tracked health data online, and 18% had sought to locate others with similar health concerns via the Internet". These statistics suggest that self-empowerment and action taking, in regard to health, is becoming a much more accepted behavior norm, instead of a small online community, like it has been in the past.[22] When sharing workout results with friends on social media, one is much more aware of their personal well-being. Knowing your physical fitness and activity levels are very important for living a healthy life, which leads to the conclusion why many say that technologies like the FuelBand are necessary for being physically responsible for oneself. The FuelBand makes it much more simple to live a healthy and informed life and this can be related to maintaining personal health records. Personal health records are types of medical records that are edited, administrated, and owned by the patient, instead of the doctor or health care administrator. Personal health records are usually stored on online databases, and they have proven to be "a key step in empowering health self-management as we can have a more active role in understanding, accessing, maintaining, and sharing our personal health information, and in coordinating and participating in our own health care".[23] Studies have shown that PHR users are over 65% more likely to follow up on recommended care or to act on the change that they desire, which indicates the potentially beneficial influences in behaviors of PHRs.[24] The FuelBand has the potential to help its users get in great physical shape and to be well informed of their health records and statistics. Because of this and the ability to be connected to an online community through social media, the FuelBand can be seen as an innovative technology that is representing the way that the health field is going in the future. Health practices are becoming more personalized and more power is being given to the individual and the FuelBand is an exact example of this new field of technology that is growing in size.
