In the classic Pixar movie, Wall-e, futuristic humans are depicted as overweight, driving around in motorized vehicles instead of walking, drinking slurpees and constantly plugged into technology. The image would be hilarious if it wasn’t so frighteningly accurate.
Whether it is people waiting for five minutes to take an elevator up one flight or families watching their separate iPads around the dinner table, technology can make life easier without making it better. But, as someone who created an app, I am a huge proponent of the potential of technology. Used correctly, it can give us richer experiences. But I am also still a firm believer in a little human effort.
That is why my wife and I created City Walker in a very specific way. For anyone new to City Walker it is a travel app that gives you local recommendations for places to eat, drink or catch entertainment. When you go to a new city it can be overwhelming to know where to go, which is why people often fall back on chains.
We could have shown recommendations throughout an entire city. But that would have encouraged people to hop in a car and go. I believe that the best way to see and discover a new place is by walking. That is why all of our recommendations are within 15 minutes walk from your current location.
Here are three reasons walking is the best way to explore a new city:
- Experience is multisensory. To truly know a place you need to experience its sights, sounds, smells and feel. The best way to do this is not from a hotel or a car but to be out on the street. It is the nuances and subtleties that make each place different. Walking around and stumbling upon these is the best part of traveling.
- When you are in a new location chances are you’re going to eat out. Eating out can be delicious but it can also be high in calories. Walking allows you to enjoy yourself at the dining table while knowing you can burn off some of those extra pounds. It makes any trip feel guilt free. Not to mention all of the additional health benefits you get from walking like strengthening your heart and lowering your risk for disease.
- Really, though, walking will prevent the Wall-e dystopia from becoming reality and that is the most important thing of all. We must fight against these Pixar visions becoming reality or else rats may be cooking our dinners in French restaurants or our toys may be plotting a coup. So for all of our sakes, please walk!
6 thoughts on “How City Walker Will Prevent Pixar Movies From Becoming Reality”
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Um, excuse me…Pixar movies and what happens in them has NOTHING to do with walking! What are you trying to do, insult the whole studio let alone its entire fanbase?! If you’re saying to fight back against all Pixar visions it is because you are not taking them for the fact that they are computer-animated and not meant to be entirely based on reality. You can’t just force us Pixar fans to walk away from those films, their soundtracks, its merchandise, or even our websites–because it’s all our own decision, not yours! (And by the way, one of the things we truly dedicated Pixar fans really want–besides the now-in-production “Incredibles” sequel and/or just plain working for the studio someday–is one of our own real-life working WALL-Es…)
Emily – thanks for your note. The article never says Pixar is bad or Wall-e is bad. Actually one of my favorite movies. The article is simply pointing out the commonalities between people in the movies and real life. Obesity is an epidemic in many parts of the world, that fact is undeniable – walking lowers the risk of obesity.
Whatever. But I have this thing against Internet users who can’t accept Pixar’s movies for being animated and not usually meant to be based on reality–which I can easily tell, because they’re all like, “Toys can’t come to life.” and like, “Monsters don’t exist.” and like, “Cars can’t talk.” and like, “Rats can’t cook.” and like, “Robots don’t have feelings.” and like, “You can’t life a house with balloons.” and a bunch of other things obviously coming from parents who think that animated movies are teaching their kids the wrong stuff because they only want what their kids watch to be educational instead of just for entertainment purposes only. And I, in some ways, disagree with those people who say these things because: 1) Action-figure type toys have talking and movement features activated with button pushes, remote controls, wind-ups, and/or sensors for when you either pass them or interact with them (which makes it feel like the toy is alive.) 2) Monsters do exist, not in real life but rather in your night’s sleep–or subconscious, I should say, because our weird dreams don’t apply to waking-life reality, either. 3) That, and I do believe some robots have feelings, because of a thing called “sentience”–which to them means going beyond their original programming in order to start expressing other feelings and moods and actions. *Sorry if I got a little carried away with the details, but I just wanted to point something out, okay?***
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