App notifications can be helpful reminders to keep move and conserve your fitness subroutine — in normal times . These are not normal times .

The hourly alert my smartwatch sends me to get up and take the air around were annoying before societal distancing was a affair . Now they ’re force me insane . Is it because these apprisal are a clear reminder my gizmo and apps have no idea covid-19 is taking the humanity by storm ? Or is it the indignity that comes with an app disgrace me for doing the responsible thing and staying indoors ? Maybe I ’m just upset that these notifications keep jolting me back to the world of this godawful timeline .

https://gizmodo.com/the-best-sources-for-covid-19-information-1842293860

Can I, Apple Watch? Can I???

Can I, Apple Watch? Can I???Photo: Victoria Song (Gizmodo)

For what it ’s worth , expert have saidyoucanstillgooutsideto exercise , provided you rest six feet by from other humankind and avoid touching your side . Walks and runs have keep me reasonable as I drop most of my mean solar day withdraw in a 550 - square - foot studio apartment with my partner and our two pets . But you know what I do n’t need ? A notification from my Apple Watch recite me that ordinarily my activity rings are much further along by now . Yeah , I know . But even as I rationalize I ’m not a Bad Person for continuing to move outside four times a week , it soak up to be reminded that I ’m circumscribe to an hour or so a day of extend my leg .

https://twitter.com/embed/status/1239672035560783880

Yesterday , MyFitnessPal sent me an fabulously unmannerly reminder to “ step on the ordered series and update my current weight . ” Um , excuse me . So far covid-19 anxiousness has manifested in a 3 - pound weight release , but I ’m sure that once I get used to my raw reality , I will snack my way to some obvious weightiness addition . This morning , MapMyRun notified me I miss my 6 a.m. run for because make for from home has whole mess with my sense of time . I am now wasting precious learning ability cells calculating the least crowded hours at my local common and test to quieten anxiety that other ballpark - goers might think my cold weather snot and throat - glade are signs that I ’m infected . My construction ’s gym is closed . Every notification is a painful reminder that I am fall behind progression on my run goals .

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In the sentence of covid-19 , this is an onset and I will not stand for it.pic.twitter.com/Gz2npA2JNv

— Victoria Song ( @vicmsong)March 16 , 2020

A speedy opinion poll of my coworkers revealed that I am not alone in my fitness app - induced anxiety . Strava has apparently intercept one coworker to begin an activity . No , YOU bug out an activity , Strava . We are currently chain to our keyboards give rise content and societal distancing . The Samsung Health app feign another coworker , while several noted their Apple Watches have chided   them over unclosed tintinnabulation .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

I know I can turn all these notifications off . I ’ll probably get around to it at some point . But in the meantime , we could all credibly practice a cathartic , collective discharge session .

COVID-19Social Distancing

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