Cognitive Surplus and Child Obesity
Cognitive surplus is the phenomenon now occurring in the United States when Americans have extra time on their hands due to increased technology. Sometimes people use this extra time for activities such as watching TV for hours and hours. However, some people use their time more productively and educate other people through editing sites such as Wikipedia.
Wikipedia’s site on Child Obesity has clearly had a lot of time spent on it. The site features a wide variety of information including classification, statistics, causes, effects on health, and so much more. What really stands out about this page, is all the information that would obviously take a good bit of effort to gather. Information such as causes, statistics, and long term effects are very accessible; they’re all over the web. It is the information that would have been very hard to track down and collect such as current and past global research that has been done, genetics, and epidemiology that holds its own among the rest. The 81 listed references alone shows the time and effort spent on this educating and potentially life-changing site.
Out of all the fundraisers I looked at, the Bite Size fundraiser was the one that stood out the most. The main heading of the fundraiser is “Bite Size: Reversing Childhood Obesity in America”. There was a written description of what the fundraiser was for and a video that was more purposed to appeal to viewers’ emotions than it was informative. The fundraiser took place back in 2010. It raised $15,177 but was only open for funding for thirty days (from November 10 – December 10). The purpose of the fundraiser was to raise money to buy equipment for filming a documentary that would follow three obese children from Texas, provide them with education that could change their habits, and tell their story.
Cognitive surplus can be used to really make a difference in today’s society and in people’s lives. It’s amazing to see what people can accomplish when they use their time to create.
Image from: http://www.ahealthblog.com/evidence-links-childhood-obesity-to-metabolic-disorders-in-adulthood.html
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I thought the Bite Size fundraiser did a really effective job of promoting the cause. I liked the fact that the video featured kids. It appealed to the audience’s emotions and made the seriousness of the issue hit home. I can see why the campaign got attention because it will do a good job educating people about childhood obesity.