Robotic mower could destroy a great physical activity

The robotic mower’s time has arrived. Its price has fallen, and the quality of this technology has improved. In 2020 for the first time, I heard a radio advertisement promising the dawn of a new era of convenience. In April 2021, I read my first newspaper story about the robotic mower. “Whenever the weather permits, Britt Wood drinks morning coffee on his patio, proudly watching his little guy mow his lawn,” the Wall Street Journal article begins. I don’t know how Britt Wood lives his life; he might be a very active person. But my fear is the robotic mower will, in general, push many people further toward a sedentary lifestyle instead of an active one.

Across the globe, the robotic mower could destroy millions of minutes of physical activity, especially among people who don’t enjoy mowing but do it out of necessity. I’m talking about people like Wisconsin radio personality Fife. He tweeted in 2020, “Mowing lawns as an adult is one big guilting party. One by one, neighbors go out and cut their lawn until you feel so guilted by them… that you have to do the same.” There’s truth to what Fife says. But this guilt trip keeps people active: a solid 30 to 45 minutes at least once a week for many people.

When inactivity becomes a status symbol

Of course, some people actually enjoy mowing the lawn—or at least tolerate it without complaint. I have a battery-powered push mower, which makes for a quieter and cleaner (no stinky exhaust) experience.

As robotic lawnmowers move into the mainstream, I predict a large group of people will feel pressure to “keep up with the Joneses”—those families first on their block to get a robotic lawnmower. Robotic mower manufacturers will market these devices as status symbols. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal article did a fine marketing job, portraying the robotic mower as a gateway to more leisure time.

I can see the TV ads now: Bill is lounging in a beach chair sipping on a lemonade as his robotic lawnmower trims his lawn. Meanwhile, his neighbor Fred is slaving away with his push mower. The camera angle will show Fred dripping in sweat and looking miserable. The take-away message won’t be subtle: Don’t be that guy tethered to a beastly machine. Be the guy who lives in perpetual leisure, sipping on lemonade while a robot does the work for him.

What the ad won’t explain is Bill may have reduced significantly the amount of physical activity in his life by abandoning his push lawnmower. A push mower can provide great exercise, especially if you use a manual push mower or a reel mower. Using a push mower can contribute to your 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity recommended by the American Heart Association.

How a robotic lawnmower could cost you

There’s no escaping the negative health effects of a sedentary lifestyle. We see those negative effects in the younger generations raised on labor-saving technologies, as a 2019 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association study highlights. It explains how millennial mortality rates could end up 40% higher than Gen X mortality rates. It’s no coincidence these predicted outcomes coincide with the rise of “smart” technologies, starting with the mother of them all—the smartphone.

If you replace those 45 minutes you spend each week pushing a mower with the near-zero minutes of physical activity required to operate a robotic mower, you could lose more than 1,000 minutes of physical activity each year (assuming you mow from May 1 to Oct 31).

A select group of people might replace this lost physical activity with another type of physical activity and argue the robotic mower didn’t cost them. OK, I’m willing to entertain that possibility—but only for a select few people. Many people aren’t going to bother to calculate the amount of physical activity they’ve lost and replace those minutes. It’s just not the way people think when they switch to labor-saving technology because the whole point is to save labor, including the movement associated with it.

Defending the last bastions of physical activity

The beauty of the push mower is its primary purpose isn’t to provide exercise: It’s to cut the lawn. Most people use a mower not to stay fit but, as Fife explains, to keep your lawn tidy like the neighbors’. Because if you don’t mow the lawn, you face your neighbors’ scorn. Your could even be fined if your grass grows long enough.

That’s the beauty of the push mower and all things frugalmatic: They’re valuable because they’re tied directly to personal responsibilities, which social and legal pressures often create. As more labor-saving technologies creep into our lives, we encounter fewer social and legal pressures tied to physical activities. Remember when teenagers danced on Friday nights? Sadly, many social pressures today discourage physical activities and encourage sedentary ones, such as mindlessly scrolling on a smartphone.

In the 19th century and even into 20th century, many responsibilities demanded physical activity, from walking to the outhouse to pumping wells. The first pioneers made much of what they used—even the nails they pounded—and so they were constantly active. The few labor-saving technologies they had back then helped the pioneers survive. Today, labor-saving technologies do little more than give people an excuse to move less and sit more.

Lawn mowing represents one of the last household chores demanding a modest level of physical exertion.

Be intentional or be sedentary

In our digitalized economy, you must be intentional about introducing physical activity to your routine: Vacuuming, using hand tools, cleaning, biking, chopping wood and climbing stairs all provide movement. Embracing these tasks guarantees you’ll get at least some of the moderate-intensity aerobic activity recommended by the American Heart Association. Should you be doing even more than these types of activity? Of course, but before you consider adding a workout program or gym membership to your life, pay attention to the mini-workout opportunities you might be inadvertently eliminating from your life.

If mowing the lawn is a key source of physical activity in your life, safeguard those minutes. If you can’t stand mowing and can’t wait to get a robotic mower, consider creating a plan for replacing those lost minutes of physical activity. Otherwise, you could be unwittingly sinking deeper into the quicksand of a sedentary lifestyle and risking the associated health complications.