Stories

Losing weight is something many people struggle with these days, and as technology becomes more integrated into our lives, we’ve become more sedentary and more prone to weight gain. However, technology doesn’t always harm us; sometimes it can provide incredible benefits. Today, I’ll share the story of Amit, who managed to lose 45 kilos with the help of a game. Let’s get straight to the details without further delay. Sports with Virtual Reality Glasses About a year or two ago, Amit weighed 330 pounds, almost 150 kilograms. This didn’t look good at all for Amit, who is 177cm tall. He was categorised as obese, and of course, one of the biggest reasons for this was his lack of physical activity during the day. One day, he decided to buy Meta Quest 2, which Meta had released. Quest 2 is a virtual reality headset with many apps you can purchase. Amit also bought a game called Ragnarock. This game is actually similar to Guitar Hero, which many of us have heard of before. Melodies pass over the drums you play at a certain speed, and you try to hit these notes with the correct timing without missing their sequence. I also checked out this game; it’s not just on Meta, it’s also available on Steam and the PlayStation Store. Is it possible to lose weight just by playing video games? In an article he wrote for PC World magazine, Amit said he didn’t think virtual reality glasses were actually tools that could help you lose weight on their own. This is because he mostly works at a desk and eats quite unhealthily. Even though he played these kinds of games during that time, there wasn’t a significant change in his weight. With such a lifestyle, his muscle mass gradually weakened, and when he went to the gym, he couldn’t lift weights or endure any exercise for long periods. When his friends invited him for walks, he felt terrible back pain as soon as they started walking. Amit realised it was time to give up this lifestyle and switch to a healthier, more active one. However, he chose not to do activities like spending hours on a treadmill or rowing machine in the same position because it was too boring. He’s also one of the writers for PC World magazine, which I follow monthly, and due to his passion for technology, he’s used many virtual reality headsets. Playing games instead of exercising in winter. Actually, it all started with an invitation called Walktober. Walktober is a walking event where companies can participate collectively, and Amit saw that PC World was participating and received an invitation. The goal of this walk was to walk an average of 7000 steps. Since he lives in Pennsylvania, the sun usually sets very early in October, and it’s mostly rainy and quite cool. Not wanting to walk 7000 steps in the cold and dark, Amit decided to work out at home with his Quest 2 virtual reality glasses. He went to the fitness section and downloaded a few apps, but in his words, he was too overweight to keep up with the exercises in these apps and was out of breath after just a few minutes. Realising that these applications were too challenging for him, Amit decided to start with a simpler one. He then downloaded an application called Ragnarock. This application is set in the Viking era, and while the Vikings are rowing, you are playing drums. Essentially, the game’s concept is very similar to Guitar Hero. You try to hit the notes passing over the drums by moving your arms up and down, and the more accurately you time it, the faster the Vikings row. I checked out a bit of the game, and the graphics are pretty bad, like the games we played on Atari. But virtual reality headsets are getting better at resolution. Meta’s latest Quest Pro has 4K resolution and a $999 price tag. Getting back to the topic, Amit thoroughly enjoyed playing the drums in this game and set his smartwatch to exercise mode to track calories burned. Initially, he didn’t think he’d burn that many calories just by moving the wireless controllers, but as he progressed through the levels, he realised he needed to perform those movements much more quickly. These wireless controllers are much heavier than drumsticks, which caused Amit to sweat profusely. However, after a while, he got bored with playing the same music all the time and bought fast-paced rock, metal, and pop music from within the app. Now, instead of just moving his arms, he started jumping, headbanging, and playing the game more aggressively when he got carried away by the music. He even broke a few things at home without realising it. In some virtual reality games, you can’t see your surroundings at all, so it’s a good idea to remove any breakable items while playing these games. Amit found that when playing this game at the highest level, he burned between 800 and 1000 calories in an hour. When he first noticed this, he thought his Fitbit smartwatch was being overly generous, but then he realised how much he was sweating in that hour. The calories he burned playing this game were almost more than a 5km walk or a 10,000-step walk. Is a virtual reality headset sufficient on its own? Amit didn’t just lose weight using these virtual reality glasses. After starting to lose some weight thanks to the games, he decided to join a rowing group. To get there, he decided to walk instead of driving. As a result, he started canoeing over 30 miles, or more than 45 km, a day. When it was raining, and he didn’t want to leave the house, he continued to exercise at home using his Quest virtual reality headset. Is it possible to burn the same calories on a treadmill or by walking outside? Yes, it’s absolutely possible, but many people find it very boring, and such activities require leaving your comfort zone. The vast majority

We often see reports in various media outlets about the problems individuals born between 1997 and 2012, known as Gen Z or Generation Z, are facing in finding and retaining jobs. But is Gen Z solely to blame for this, or are there other reasons for this problem? Let’s get straight to the details without further delay. Is there a problem with Gen Z? At last year’s World Economic Forum meeting, while topics such as climate change, energy consumption, and emerging job sectors were discussed, an interesting point emerged: Generation Z is struggling to adapt to the work culture, and their desire to work and their tendency to stay in a job for a long time are much lower compared to other generations. This study compared Generations Z and Y (1981-1996) in various fields. The results showed that Generation Z has a much lower job retention rate compared to Generations Y and X (1965-1980). Another study revealed that Generation Z experiences higher levels of stress, anxiety, loneliness, and unhappiness. Bloomberg even published an article suggesting that Generation Z is easily overwhelmed by the work environment and that many will remain unemployed. Changing Work Culture Seeing so much negative news, I started researching this issue, but I realised that blaming an entire generation and saying they did everything wrong isn’t the right approach at all. Similar problems have been seen before in the millennial generation (Generation Y). Generations who first started working during the computer and internet revolution tried to solve many tasks with the help of computers and the internet, and senior employees who have worked in these same workplaces for years have viewed this approach as taking the easy way out. Emerging in an era when wars had ended worldwide, and industry, technology, and many other sectors were booming, creating hundreds of new job opportunities, Generation X began searching for employment. In this era where many billionaires have emerged and companies and startups that break tax records each year have appeared, the term “workaholic” has also emerged. Generation X, even without a very high level of education, can easily find jobs and comfortably meet their needs, such as housing, cars, and other major expenses, with the money they earn. It has also not been observed that Generation X is very picky about jobs. Children of Generation X, also known as the millennial generation or Generation Y, have never encountered things like war or hunger. Growing up mostly within an established system, they had easy access to high school and university education. Instead of just doing any job, individuals now specialise in a field, obtain a degree, and work professionally in a specific sector. Witnessing the incredible rise of technology, this generation has seen many things that previously required physical solutions gradually shift to the digital realm. This generation has thus witnessed changes in the way things are done. Before and After Covid But we have long since left behind an era where people said they would do any job and everything progressed at a steady pace. When Generation Z entered the workforce, a generation that grew up with the age of technology, they struggled to adapt to old-fashioned work models. While these issues were being discussed, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 accelerated the adoption of remote work as a concept in the work culture. When it became clear that completely remote work wasn’t a very high-performing approach, the hybrid work model was adopted by many global giants. Now, however, many companies are trying to return to the old-fashioned work system. For the first time in years, so many different work models have been tried by companies in such a short period, and many employees have not wanted to give up their flexibility in the process. In an era where work environments are changing so rapidly, everyone expected Generation Z to adapt to all these changes immediately. I’m sure you’ve heard about the layoffs in Silicon Valley, but most of these news stories covered the issue superficially to get more clicks. In 2019, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta hired an average of 90,000 people before COVID, but this number increased to 875,000 after COVID, almost ten times the normal number of hires. Because people were confined to their homes, there was an unprecedented demand for mobile devices and mobile services. When things returned to normal, demand in this sector began to revert to its previous level. The layoffs currently taking place represent only about 10% of these jobs. Of course, then, with the arrival of ChatGPT, artificial intelligence caused job losses for certain professional groups. Many data-driven jobs can now be done by AI, which is a whole separate podcast topic that we will discuss in detail in another episode. However, all these rapid hiring and firing events happened to Generation Z. Now I’m sure you’ll ask, are all members of Generation Z angels without wings? Is there nothing this generation has done wrong? Let’s take a look at that. High technical skills, Low social skills. According to research, Generation Z has been observed to have significantly lower communication skills compared to all previous generations. However, when compared to previous generations, this generation has achieved much better results in technical skills. While this generation easily adapts to many new digital tools and technologies, they have failed in communication skills, one of the most important criteria in the workplace. However, I don’t think it would be fair to blame this generation here. As someone born in 1990, I belong to Generation Y, and it was quite difficult to talk about the existence of technology during the time I grew up. For example, if you liked a girl in high school, you had to run after her and confront her, but now, with some applications, you don’t need to have such a confrontation. Even before I started elementary school, as the youngest in the family, I was constantly sent to the grocery store and market, and I was constantly in contact with shopkeepers. Now, most parents avoid giving their children such tasks