Quitting Fitbit Comes With Guilt

Half of all people who stop using their Fitbit feel guilty about quitting. That’s the verdict from researchers at Washington University, who surveyed 141 people who gave up the tracker. Science Daily reports on the research, which also found that nearly all of the quitters said they hope to return to activity tracking. Twenty-one said they got really no value out of tracking, found it annoying, or struggled to change their behavior based on the Fitbit readout. Five said they had learned enough about their habits, and 45 reported mixed feelings about abandoning their Fitbit. Unsurprisingly, most people preferred to focus on social comparisons that made them look better than their peers, such as “you walked more than 70 percent of people,” over those that were framed negatively, such as “30 percent of people walked more than you” — even if the comparisons represented the same information.