Greater Obesity Awaits As More Activities Becomes Sedentary

During my long tenure as a Ph.D. student at the University of Tokyo, I took many odd jobs, both to supplement my income, learn about some new industries, and kill some time while waiting on professors' feedback for my research. One of the more interesting was acting as a test proctor at the university. With many other part-time workers, I had to show up to the testing centers, watch young students line up for their turns, and nervously go about their examination tasks. It was heartening to see the next generation of youths taking solid steps toward their eventual graduation, in a decidedly nerve-wracking atmosphere.

Part of the fun of doing the test proctoring job was seeing the testing process in action, interacting with the test takers and administrators in real-time, and watching them being all serious while nonchalantly going about a job whose outcome has little to do with me. That contrast is all the more interesting when what should be smooth communication falls apart when test takers, unfortunately, deviate from what they had studied and prepared, leaving them unable to respond flexibly. Seeing them "wing it" in ad hoc reactions, some more successful than others, is always a good time for human observations.

Such test proctoring jobs are perhaps nostalgic to future test proctors. As I recently go about testing some exams for my Fraud Examiner certificate, I come to realize that the very idea of physical testing centers will soon become too obsolete, driven out of business by fast internet, the cost of physical locations, and the last geographic distances between test takers, proctors, and administrators. As I come to realize during this exam, video cameras and chat boxes can be fine substitutes for real classrooms manned by real people, as long as there is a thorough process of remotely checking for signs of cheating.

Indeed, the online test environment is much more than just a bunch of questions on a computer screen. The specialized software is designed to halt the running of all other programs on the computer that is being used for the test, and test proctors, connected by webcam throughout the whole testing process, are trained to ask the test takers to show them their entire testing rooms so that there are no extra pieces of paper lying around and no signs on walls to assist the test taker. The extra 30 minutes for the "environment check" still beats having to commute to a physical test center using perhaps even more time.

While the webcam-proctored online examination goes well, the idea that remote testing becomes prevalent also raises the question of just how many more services can be moved online without sacrificing quality and prestige. Learning, I once thought, would be one of the last physical locations to go digital. After all, good schools are not just what content is delivered in classes. It is about the status of being physically there, surrounded by imposing and historical architecture, as well as highly intellectual professors and peers.

Yet, the rise of online learning, through video-based lectures and software containing plenty of practice tests and reading material, shows that there may really be no boundaries and limits to what physical environments IT cannot displace. And as more and more physical environments that one needs to physically go to are replaced with something that can be easily accessed from the comfort of one's own room and computer, a much more sedentary lifestyle awaits the average human. Walking through the digital world certainly does not burn as many calories as walking the physical one.

Even in Japan, a society that is relatively slim by international standards, the creeping realm of "everything at one's fingertips" is sure to make some people put on the pounds. A walkable society no longer needs to be walkable if groceries, meals, and whatever other consumer goods needed for everyday life can be delivered in a matter of days, if not hours, after being ordered online. Even when going out for meals and shopping, more extreme weather will make traditional outside activities more difficult, especially in the hot summers.

The bulges of a more overweight population are already visible. A series of interviews with customers at Japanese branches of popular US-based bulk goods discounter Costco shows that many are quite big physically and do not seem to mind the extra weight. Transporting Costco-sized items is impossible without a car anyways, so the Costco shopping trips are much less energy-consuming than the size of the stores would suggest. Better yet, it would be only a matter of time before the same folks start buying Costco products online and get them delivered. Moving around physically will become even rarer...