Overview
- University College London and Loughborough University analyzed 58,881 X posts about the five most profitable fitness apps using machine-assisted topic analysis.
- From these, 13,799 negative posts were examined, highlighting themes such as oversimplified algorithmic goals, irritating notifications, and technical malfunctions.
- Users described emotional responses including shame and disappointment when failing to meet targets or logging foods the apps flagged as unhealthy.
- Some posts indicated demotivation and disengagement from both the apps and related health behaviors following these negative experiences.
- The peer-reviewed paper, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, notes it assessed only negative posts and cannot determine overall net effects on wellbeing.