Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/10/17/google-maps-pulls-feature-that.html
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War vets with PTSD are triggered by gunshots.
People with mental illness are triggered by stressful or extreme situations or events that can result in psychiatric symptoms.
People with eating disorders are not “triggered” by estimates of calories burned on a walk, and cupcakes are not inherently female.
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Map shaming there’s no way around it! Wait, re-routing…
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is a cupcake metric or imperial?
“mini-” is not an SI prefix that I’m familiar with.
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Imperial. One cupcake is roughly equivalent to 236 millibiscuits.
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So did people with eating disorders actually complain, or, like the article implies, is someone assuming this will offend them on their behalf.
That comment about cupcakes being associated with women is offensive in itself, and I’m a male.
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You seem very sure. Almost…too sure.
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This “nudge” stuff, however well-intentioned and cute, tends to rub people the wrong way if the nudge is too obvious. This seems like a better optional feature for the integration between Google Fit and Google Maps.
If only they were. The other evening I made an impulse purchase of four mini-cupcakes that were on sale for a very good price. The night did not end well for me, mainly because the cupcakes did not survive it.
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Yeah i saw this:
cupcakes, a type of food that is particularly associated with women
And was very confused. I thought cupcakes were delicious and now i’m being informed that it’s not a treat that men would be into? I guess men only consider beef jerky and whiskey desserts. Thank you for the gendering of a dessert BB, i suppose i will need to go home and toss out the mini-cupcakes in the freezer (for real).
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Mini-cupcake addiction is real people.
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“Hi. My name is Rick, and it’s been 401 kms since I’ve had a mini-cupcake.”
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I’m pondering this very hard, but wondering where you draw the line?
Racism is bad. It is within human possibility to treat every skin tone equitably and with cultural sensitivity.
Sexism is bad. It is within human possibility to treat every gender equitably and with cultural sensitivity.
But foodism? Food IS culture, as well as life sustaining; a necessary thing. How can you even attempt to police how the world thinks about food?
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Cut to the near future, California after the Big One. A former rogue cop is unfrozen to this unfamiliar world and he is tasked with hunting down his nemesis, a crazed criminal that cost him his career and freedom. This former cop, once called Demolition Man now must adjust to a squeaky clean world, where even seemingly normal things like beer and salt have all been made illegal.
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Take out the powder puffs, insert mini-cupcakes, and you have me, a cis male happy in my cupcakesculinity:
ETA: How I love this photo. I wish I knew who the art director/photographer was, so I could consider a commission for myself.
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If the answer is simple enough, don’t mention cupcakes in a certain context, then it can’t possibly address a complex problem like eating disorders. The trend with big problems nowadays is to not tackle them because they are too big, instead you tackle the little things, where you can see an actual result.
That this may not actually help people with their eating disorder is not relevant, that it addresses a possible concern is.
Edited for clarity.
I think that just saying how many estimated calories such a walk would burn would be good enough, but make that an optional feature one should enable instead of having it on by default.
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I think one step further would be good, for those of us who think concretely.
Not just a toggle, but a toggle for various choices of food. Gummi bears, slices of pizza, turkey legs, bowls of paella or borscht, yams, etc.
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I thought about that as well, have it randomly select a variety of foods or drinks, or have it compare to a pre-determined food someone selects. So if i have a pizza i can parse out how far i need to walk or job to burn those calories or at least a portion of said calories. I figure this is something that already exists in other apps.
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See, to my mind, google did just fine, they added a feature they thought would be helpful/cute, and scaled it back upon feedback. There’s no way to please everybody, being responsive to feedback is probably as good as it gets.
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