To explain how technology has affected people’s activity levels, the honest answer is this: it cuts movement by default and restores it by design. Neither effect cancels the other out, and both are getting stronger.
How Daily Tech Use Cuts Movement
Remote work is a clean example. Post-2020 data suggests commute-based walking dropped by roughly 30% for people who shifted to home offices. A commute, even a dull one, forced movement — stairs, parking lots, train platforms. Strip that out and the body barely shifts before noon. The CDC reported in 2022 that Americans sit an average of 6.5 hours per day, and US adults log roughly 7 hours of daily screen time. Those numbers overlap more than most people admit.
Global obesity rates have doubled since 1990, per WHO figures. Technology isn’t the only driver, but the timing lines up with the spread of televisions, PCs, smartphones, and streaming. Entertainment that once required leaving the house now arrives in your pocket. Ordering food, banking, socializing — all of it increasingly happens without standing up.
Tech Tools That Push People to Move
The fitness tracker market was valued at $62.1 billion in 2023, and that money exists because the devices work, at least partially. A JAMA study found wearable users walk about 40 more minutes per week compared to non-users. Not dramatic, but across a year that’s roughly 35 extra hours of walking. For someone who otherwise sits most of the day, that margin matters.
Gamification is probably the stranger success story here. Pokémon GO drove an estimated 144 billion steps in its first year. Players were walking miles through neighborhoods to catch virtual creatures — genuinely moving, genuinely outside, with no fitness goal required. That model has influenced a wave of apps since, from running apps with audio rewards to cycle challenges tied to workplace competitions. I’d be careful about overstating wearables, though. The 40-minute weekly boost applies to consistent users, and from what I’ve seen, a lot of people buy a tracker, wear it for six weeks, and forget it entirely.
Where This Leaves Most People
Technology has affected people’s activity levels in ways that are genuinely hard to untangle. The sedentary pull is structural, baked into how most jobs, entertainment, and daily errands now function. The active push is optional, which means it mostly reaches people already inclined to use it. That gap is worth keeping in mind before concluding that wearables solve what screen culture creates.
FAQs
Has technology made people less active overall?
On balance, yes. Sedentary screen time and reduced commute walking affect nearly everyone, while activity-boosting tech reaches a smaller, already-motivated group.
How do fitness trackers improve physical activity?
Wearable users average about 40 more minutes of walking per week, according to JAMA research, mainly because step goals and reminders make inactivity visible and harder to ignore.
What is the impact of screen time on health?
Seven hours of daily screen time correlates with reduced movement, disrupted sleep, and higher obesity risk, though causation varies by individual lifestyle and the type of screen use involved.