Step by step, you will leave footprints on the world: just don’t make them all digital

Way back in 1986, I was given my first computer. Well, it wasn’t really a computer as such, more a word processer with extras. It was made by Amstrad, had a green screen and you were required to save everything onto a thin cassette disc (called a floppy disc). There was no such thing as Word, Excel or PowerPoint. These came along two years later when Microsoft Office was launched. I loved my little Amstrad PCW and have been using computers in my work and personal life ever since.   

Over the last nearly four decades, computers have become more powerful, smaller, and relatively speaking, much cheaper. I flirted with Apple Mac computers, but couldn’t settle with the operating systems. That said, I love my iPad and have been upgrading mine every couple of years. I use Microsoft Office and goodness has that suite of programmes advanced exponentially! I haven’t yet had time to look at the new iPad Pro, but the advertisements boast this is ‘the most powerful iPad ever and also the thinnest’. My interest was piqued by the allegedly controversial advert. I make no apologies for probably being the only person in the world who actually liked the advert. I thought it was very clever, but then I have sometimes been called a philistine. If you didn’t catch it, have a look here.

One of the criticisms of the advert was while it was visually stunning, the content possibly hints at a future where our creative endeavours are entirely confined to digital screens. As such, there being no room for creativity being captured in a physical sense. I once worked with a university Vice Chancellor who, when he retired, had his portrait displayed only on a digital screen, and not a physical painting. Interestingly, once he left, the screen was unplugged. However, the march of technology is relentless. It’s true that technology can be transformational. Today my iPhone is 1 million+ times more powerful than the computer that sent Apollo 11 to the moon.

I have a device on my wrist that tells me how steps I have taken in a day, what my heart beat is, how many calories I have burnt in a day and how many hours of sleep I enjoy each night. It can do much more, but I can’t be bothered to read the instruction book. In truth I only use it to see how far I have walked and to check if I’m still alive. Both have proved useful over the years. My Fitbit sends the information to my phone, which keeps a record of how many miles I have walked each week.

I have been a long-time supporter of the #NHS1000miles initiative. This was started in 2018 to mark the NHS 70th Birthday. Every Sunday I join thousands of other folk who at 7.30pm, post the number of miles they have walked, run, cycled, or swam during the previous week. Most also post photos taken while doing their activity. In that first year, I walked over 1,000 miles. Since then, I have consistently walked at least 2,000 miles each year. I’m secretly pleased to have now walked well over 11,000 miles since that first year. I’m up to nearly 1,000 miles so far this year.

While walking is my thing, everyone can join in the #NHS1000miles challenge. It’s not a competition, J who likes to run, has this year consistently clocked up more miles per week than me. Aiming to get to 1,000 miles in a year means trying on average to clock up 2.74 miles a day. For some people that is easier than others. What is important is not the number of miles, but that folk are active, and are active on a regular basis.

We have just come to the end of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week. The theme for this year is Movement: moving more for our mental health. Like the #NHS1000miles, persuading more people to become active, however they choose to do so has been the aim of the week using the hashtag #MomentsForMovement. There is now a great deal of evidence that shows the benefits that keeping active has on our physical and mental health and our wellbeing. The Mental Health Foundation (the home of mental health awareness week) produced a brilliant report that brings some of this evidence together, alongside further research undertaken this year with some 6,000 participants. I’m not sure if there is a physical print version of the report, but you can read the digital version here (on your computer, tablet or phone).

Their research shows that whilst 82% of people believe that regular physical activity is important in keeping mentally well, 34% of folk do not even meet the exercise recommendations set out by the World Health Organisation. The research sought to better understand why this might be; what is it that stops us from regularly keeping physically active. The usual suspects came up. Almost one in five people said that they didn’t have time in their week to exercise. Likewise, the weather, living with a long-term condition, cultural expectations, stress, and costs all featured as reasons for not exercising. I also think that the word ‘exercise’ can also give rise to the perception that all physical activity must somehow fit into a recognisable form of activity. And of course this is not true.

I looked at my digital record of miles walked so far this month. On the 1st May, I moved over a thousand roof tiles from my next-door neighbour’s garden. She had just had her roof re-tiled and didn’t know what to do with the old tiles. I said I could use them to build some more goat mountains for our two little goats, Hansel and Gretel. That day I clocked up 13 miles walked! Many of which were clocked up simply moving the tiles, a dozen at a time, in my wheelbarrow from her house to ours. It was a win-win outcome for all. Our goats love the new additions to their playground, which is just as well as they don’t know how to use a computer to play games.