Luke Hurley's review of Review of the Strava App

Date last edited: 05-30-2024 at 05:39PM

">   
Rating: Not Rated

Review:
Title: Strava
Developers: Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey
Genre: tracking physical exercise which incorporates social network features
My rating on a 5 star scale: 4
Primary audience: Athletes. Primarily teenagers and adults.
Version: 361.0.0.
Platform: iOS, Android
Cost: Free
Add an image and/or trailer to the media


Made in 2009 by Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey, the Strava app has been used for over a decade to share workouts and exercises that you have done with others. Michael Horvath said that their goal for making Strava was to, “build a company that would support your lifelong pursuit of adventure and an active life.”
Strava works by using your phone or watch, to track an exercise you have done, for instance, using a GPS watch to track a run or bike ride. Then, you can upload your work onto Strava, and post it so that your friends on Strava can see it. Along with your post, you can include a description, pictures, or videos. Your friends can then comment on your post, and they can give you “kudos,” which is basically getting a good job, and is similar to getting a like for a youtube video.
Since Strava is becoming such a popular app for athletes, it is important to examine it using the seven media keys, based on Catholic Church teaching and assembled in the book, The Infinite Bandwidth: Encountering Christ in the Media, written by Eugene Gan. By doing this, I hope to reveal the pros and cons of Strava, and how it can be used by Catholics.

The First Media Key: Balance

When using any type of media, it is important to make sure you are using it in a balanced way. Without balance, we can become obsessed and become consumed. Dr. Gan stresses the importance of using media wisely and being temperate and prudent. He says it is important that we fast from certain media occasionally. Sometimes, it may be necessary to fast from certain media entirely.

Strava has the potential to become addictive for users that aren’t careful. Becoming consumed with what your friends are posting, or constantly posting your own efforts can be dangerous. It will not be fruitful in the long-term, but will actually most likely become exhausting. For balanced users however, Strava can be good. I do not have the Strava app, but I do cross country and track running, and many of my teammates and friends on other track teams do have it. Sometimes, after big track meets, they will post how they did on Strava, comment on each other's runs, and give each other kudos. I think this is an example of how Strava can be used in a good, balanced way, as long as it doesn’t become hyper competitive.

The Second Media Key: Attitude Awareness

The second media key, attitude awareness, refers to being alert and aware of the attitude, agenda, and/or underlying message behind any type of media. Dr. Gan says it is important to view and make media that is made with a good attitude.
This relates to Strava, because it is important to recognize the attitude behind why the app was made, and why people post the things they do. For example, as I mentioned earlier, the attitude behind the creation of Strava was to, “build a company that would support your lifelong pursuit of adventure and an active life.” This is a good attitude, and supporting each other is a good thing. However, I think many times, people posting on Strava could be competing with each other in an unhealthy way, being over-competitive. Also, I think many people could be trying to brag with their postings. However, not all attitudes could be this way. Some people probably genuinely encourage each other, and although it's maybe not the most humble approach, many people probably do just wish to share their success with others.

The Third Media Key: The Dignity of the Human Person

Since we are made in God’s “image and likeness,” it is crucial to ensure that all media we make and view respects the dignity of the human person. We must stay away from media that does not respect the dignity of others.
If used with a proper mindset, Strava actually has a lot of potential to increase the dignity of the human person, by showing people how much the human person can do physically, and pushing people to expand their limits. However, it is important for all people posting to make sure that they are not disrespecting that dignity. Pictures, comments, videos, etc. should all be pure and chaste. In addition, it is important to respect others with our comments.

The Fourth Media Key: Truth-filled

Today, people aren’t sure what truth is, or if it even exists. Dr. Gan addresses this in his book, and says that it is important for us to always speak truth in our media. Media is where people are, and we need to provide truth-filled messages, not spread lies. Similarly, it is important for us to stay away from messages that are not truth-filled.
Relating this media key to Strava, it is primarily important to make sure that everything we post is accurate. Also, Strava serves as a good way to encourage people to stay physically active, and therefore provides us with the truth of the importance of perseverance.

The Fifth Media Key: Inspiring

Inspiring media is the media worth viewing and sharing. If media isn’t inspiring, it is often a waste of time. For example, walking away after watching a movie and realizing that it was dumb, is a great example of the feeling of viewing non-inspiring media. Inspiring media should encourage, and make us inspired to do good things.
Strava is a very inspiring app because it is encouraging and it not only allows you to see your own improvements and accomplishments, but you can also see what others have done and establish goals based on these accomplishments. For example, a runner that is trying to train to run a marathon could track his training using Strava, and would hopefully be encouraged by others. He could also receive workout advice, or be inspired to try something that another runner with a similar goal did. These are all good ways to be inspired by Strava. The important thing is not to feel like what others are doing is way better than what you are doing, or to be self-conscious about what people think about your workouts. Also, not being overly competitive is also vital.

The Sixth Media Key: Skillfully Developed

All media that is made should be developed skillfully. As Dr. Gan said in his book, it is important for people to know, even Catholics, what the public thinks skillfully made media is. If your media is skillfully developed then people will be attracted to it, and will appreciate it.
Strava is a skillfully developed app, with many cool features. These include the ability to post the exact route you ran, biked, swam, etc. using your GPS, and the ability to accept and send friend requests online. As long as these aspects and others are used in light of the other seven media keys, they can be a good thing.

The Seventh Media Key: Motivated by and Relevant to Experience

Our ultimate example for this final media key is Jesus. As Dr. Gan points out, Jesus’ incarnation, his becoming man, meant that he understood our human experiences. His parables were told with respect to his audience’s experiences of everyday life. For example, he frequently would use analogies of weddings. Similarly, our media should be motivated by and relevant to experience. Not only does this make our media more attractive, but it makes it more meaningful.
This key is actually what Strava is primarily about. If you are posting on Strava, you are posting about your experiences. Also, when viewing the posts of others, you are learning a bit about them and their experiences. Although these experiences are typically limited to just specific physical activities, and not relevant to deeper, personal, or more meaningful experiences, they are still motivated by and relevant to experience.


To conclude this review, Strava, a fitness app, is overall a fine app for teenagers and adults to use, as long as they are using it wisely and in respect to the Church's seven media keys. I think the audience would appreciate the media being reviewed, especially athletes, looking for an app such as this. Also, I believe that Strava, like many other forms of media, could be used in a beneficial way for yourself and others.


Seven Keys:
Balanced:
Attitude:
Personal:
Truth-filled:
Inspired:
Skillfully Made:
Experienced:

Overall Rating: 31/35

---

All Comments (0)

Must be logged in to post comments.