Segway encourages more laziness? Looks like broadcast journalism does too!
“Yes, I was naïve to ever think these things would just be laughed off as a reason why our waistlines continue to grow.”
Although the numbers vary, it is believed that 25-33% of the population in the United States is overweight (1). Segway has shipped somewhere over 50,000 units according to their own claims (2). The US population was over 304 million last year (3). Would love to see the calculator USC provides that led you to believe that 50,000 Segway sales is a major cause of obesity. You might look into the known causes of obesity. Usually the blame lies with television and video games and I expect carpal tunnel to be the next "epidemic" in 10 years or less but I am wandering off topic. That would have been a great article to write about.
“You see, I feel Segways are a complete waste of time and a totally unnecessary item to own. We as humans were given two legs that allow ourselves to be transported anywhere we’d like to go.”
By now, you have read the one comment on your article from a handicapped person. You know about handicapped people, yes? People who can stand may have chronic pain and be limited in motion. I talked to dozens of people over the years that were able to get around town thanks to the Segway. Personally, I bought mine for fun if you were wondering. Had I met you I would have told you about it, spent some time chatting and let you ride it. You really should ride on sometime, it’s a blast unlike anything else. I have allowed dozens of adults and children to ride mine. You would have found that the Segway community is very proactive at portraying a positive image, mostly because uninformed people like yourself exist.
“One cool morning while I was taking my walk to my first class, I was startled when a man in a Segway zipped by me, clad in a business suit and a briefcase strapped into a basket behind him.
The absurdity of what I saw caused me to laugh out loud, half-involuntarily and half-willingly. I feel a person owning a Segway and operating it to get from point A to point B disqualifies him from the human race.”
This is journalism? To me, it reads more like I am reading live player chat in World Of Warcraft. All it is missing is LOLcopter or ZOMG. It's a shame that the thought of interviewing this man never crossed your mind. It's also a shame that of the 3 articles I can find by you, one makes mention that bad mouthing others tarnishes one's image. You wrote that one week before this "article". Remember?
“He has chosen to rescind his ability to use his legs to walk freely wherever he’d wish to go. Segways really illustrate just what kind of ridiculous level of laziness we allow ourselves to accept.”
Again, you have no idea why this guy was on the Segway. Only laziness I see is the lack of research here. 5 minutes. Stereotype much?
“This is just another sign that we need to re-evaluate what exactly our intentions are in creating such devices and how we actually end up using them.”
They are mostly used in places where people need to walk all day long, often covering long distances at a time. Examples include warehouses, theme parks and police departments. You need to re-evaluate why you actually care.
In closing, here is a thought for a future article; people not taking pride in the way they look. For your stock photo you chose to wear a backwards baseball cap, a toothpick in your ear and a t-shirt. I feel that publishing a photo of yourself looking like a slob is disrespectful to your readers and yourself. Anyway, it’s all good; you picked an article very few people would read, on a website very few people will see. I hope your broadcast journalism leads you to a news anchor job so you can stick to reading teleprompters. Remember, everything you write is now archived and can be found by potential employers later.
Below are the 3 links I used to find the data referenced in my first paragraph. This took me roughly 5-10 minutes to Google and read.
1: Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Data and Statistics: U.S. Obesity Trends | DNPAO | CDC
2: Segway PT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3: Google - public data
Source: Segway encourages more laziness? Looks like broadcast journalism does too!
