When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Switzerland

Runners Of The World, Get Lost!

A feet-up mini manifesto deploring the modern (and very public) obsession with the sport of running. I'll walk, thank you...

So proud of their efforts
So proud of their efforts
Marie-Claude Martin

-Essay-

GENEVA — Saint Nadine, Saint Sonia, Saint Ignace, Saint Alexander, you who have winged feet, pray for me, poor sinner who hates running. I know, it's wrong. And I'm ashamed.

Ashamed of not liking this sport that is touted by Nobel Prize winners, dynamic politicians, cool scientists and renowned writers who have raised running to the rank of living art.

Ashamed of preferring to sleep on Sunday mornings instead of slipping into a pair of Asics (which comes from the Latin phrase anima sana in corpore sano) and combing the countryside or hitting the asphalt to engage in a glorious struggle against myself.

Ashamed of only doing my stretches on the Pilates mat while you, at the end of an endorphin-fueled race, reached past the pain and experienced an ecstasy that turns human bodies into celestial frames. Too bad for me: I'll never find running's G spot.

Five years ago, I never would have needed such a public confession. Back then, running was a pastime like any other. Today, it has become a model of virtue, hedonistic asceticism, one of the most commonly shared human activities. In fact, 35% of Europeans aged 15 to 65 indulge in the so-called pleasures of running.

On Facebook, there are countless running groups, and marathon runners post their impressions in search of encouraging "likes." Some runners even take before and after selfies and share everything from their training rituals to buying new shoes. We know your dream destinations, runners: Tokyo, Berlin, Paris and, most of all, New York, your Mecca, for which you prepare several years in advance. The blisters on your feet become a conversation topic, just like your weakening knees. Each one of your pains is a necessary station of the cross for your passion. You're even irreproachable aesthetically, as pretty as a Giacometti or a Greco. No one has ever seen a Botero or a Rubens arrive safe and sound after 42.195 kilometers.

I sometimes post a "Congrats," "Well done," or an "Unbelievable," but in reality I envy you runners. I'm jealous. You make me feel guilty, and that annoys me.

Recovering health

Luckily, I've discovered that I'm not alone. A 21-year-old reader, who happens to be an accomplisehd athlete and running enthusiast, told me during a visit to Le Temps that he "can't stand this childish exposure of performance" shared on social media. "My Facebook feed is full of selfies of runners in search of recognition," he said.

I've heard some quip: "It's become a new religion ..." Someone else called it "a ridiculous addiction. I'm waiting for the moment the World Health Organization declares that running is as dangerous as red meat." And this comment on a whole other level: "It's the concrete presage of transhumanism, that obsession of the always-improvable body, of the indefinitely perfectible human being."

In the 1980s, many of today's runners were engaging in extreme sports (treks, bungee jumping, skysurfing). Now marathons have replaced these pursuits. "It is the most completed expression of the sportivization of customs and bodies," says sports philosopher Isabelle Queval.

Whatever. Perhaps the good news is that it may have finally reached its peak in popularity. For the first time, I stumbled upon an article online — not about the 10 reasons to start running, but about the 12 reasons why people should give it up.

The race is on.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Ideas

Look At This Crap! The "Enshittification" Theory Of Why The Internet Is Broken

The term was coined by journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the fatal drift of major Internet platforms: if they were ever useful and user-friendly, they will inevitably end up being odious.

A photo of hands holding onto a smartphone

A person holding their smartphone

Gilles Lambert/ZUMA
Manuel Ligero

-Analysis-

The universe tends toward chaos. Ultimately, everything degenerates. These immutable laws are even more true of the Internet.

In the case of media platforms, everything you once thought was a good service will, sooner or later, disgust you. This trend has been given a name: enshittification. The term was coined by Canadian blogger and journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the inevitable drift of technological giants toward... well.

The explanation is in line with the most basic tenets of Marxism. All digital companies have investors (essentially the bourgeoisie, people who don't perform any work and take the lion's share of the profits), and these investors want to see the percentage of their gains grow year after year. This pushes companies to make decisions that affect the service they provide to their customers. Although they don't do it unwillingly, quite the opposite.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

Annoying customers is just another part of the business plan. Look at Netflix, for example. The streaming giant has long been riddling how to monetize shared Netflix accounts. Option 1: adding a premium option to its regular price. Next, it asked for verification through text messages. After that, it considered raising the total subscription price. It also mulled adding advertising to the mix, and so on. These endless maneuvers irritated its audience, even as the company has been unable to decide which way it wants to go. So, slowly but surely, we see it drifting toward enshittification.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest