Home purchase of exercise equipment does not translate into regular use

Evidence

By contrast, the NSGA, SGMA, and NHIS data, based on as little as a single episode per year, suggest growth in home exercise over those years. This evidence suggests that many newly purchased treadmills and other exercise equipment may sit unused in America’s basements after a single, hopeful tryout. In any event, exercise on a home treadmill is hardly an occasion for building social capital. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1906

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of unused treadmills in basements after a single hopeful tryout — measurement artifacts revealing a real cultural fable — is an easy conversational nugget.