Commentary
Tweeting about physical activity: can tweeting the walk help keeping the walk?
Abstract
Vickey and Breslin’s research (published on mHealth, November 2015 issue) that involved
analyzing nearly 2 million fitness tweets revealed a low percentage of mobile fitness app users meeting the
recommended physical activity level. This commentary explores contextual and psychological factors that
may underlie the observed low physical activity levels among these mobile fitness app users. Much remains
unknown about how best to leverage technologies and social media support to promote adherence to physical
activity recommendations. With the use of innovative and validated content mining strategies and taking
consideration of relevant contextual and psychological factors associated with tweeting, tweets on physical
activity offer a valuable data source to help us better understand: How can we mobilize people to ‘tweet the
walk’ and ‘keep the walk’?
analyzing nearly 2 million fitness tweets revealed a low percentage of mobile fitness app users meeting the
recommended physical activity level. This commentary explores contextual and psychological factors that
may underlie the observed low physical activity levels among these mobile fitness app users. Much remains
unknown about how best to leverage technologies and social media support to promote adherence to physical
activity recommendations. With the use of innovative and validated content mining strategies and taking
consideration of relevant contextual and psychological factors associated with tweeting, tweets on physical
activity offer a valuable data source to help us better understand: How can we mobilize people to ‘tweet the
walk’ and ‘keep the walk’?
