Today online I found a really interesting article about the singer Beyonce and her campaign with Michelle Obama to fight childhood obesity. The campaigned just launched a music video, starring Beyonce, called "Move Your Body", which comprises of 4 minutes of dancing that incorporates various exercises all in an attempt to get kids more excited about being healthy. The coolest part about the video is that it isn't meant to just sit online and simply motivate people. Schools across the country have signed up to "flashmob" the video and perform the dances in it, and a link is even available online with instructions on the choreography.
This is what I find the most intriguing about the video, and I think it can be applied to a lot of other situations to encourage healthier lifestyles. By using the internet to encourage schools to practice the dance, record it, and upload it to the internet, incentives are created to motivate people to be healthy. What if stars like Beyonce continued to post new dances for schools to learn, or even made an online competition out of it? Although I'm not the biggest fan of dancing, I can't help but to admit that there aren't many other activities that large groups of people can do together that keep everyone in constant motion. If applied to something like gym class, it can really encourage everyone to be active and moving. Also,what if sports stars made online videos encouraging kids and schools to post videos on the internet?
If schools can encourage their students to participate in these kind of online events that encourage healthier behaviors, I think many school children can be challenged to live a healthier and more active lifestyle.
This is such a good example of celebrities doing something to help promote healthy lifestyles in a way that could actually do something. While the actual event of preparing a flashmob and following the online dance instructions might only last a few days, what could be sustained is the idea of exercise being fun. Too often the idea of "exercise" is associated simply with running on a treadmill or something that would push people away from the idea, rather than a fun thing that can be incorporated into your life.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of applying this to other activities as well, including not only traditional sports, but ways of being active even like walking your dog in the neighborhood that kids could relate with. If exercise is part of a lifestyle, that will prevent future health problems far more than a structured activity that the kid has no interest in.
I tend to agree with the thought that exercise is much too stereotyped. Sometimes it seems to be culturally considered a necessary evil. If one takes a trip to a town in the mountains, it is easy to understand how much of a cultural aspect exercising has. In towns like this, exercise simply becomes the norm. Social events are built around activities like skiing and hiking and outdoor activities are always a topic of conversation. In a way, this campaign is spreading that cultural love of exercise to a much wider audience, in a way that is not dependent upon one's surroundings. I think that this is much more likely to be effective with kids than all of the health statistics in the world.
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