Sir, – The gym business in this country is at risk from people languishing on exercise benches and other equipment while using their mobile phones for extensive periods. The problem is becoming pervasive when people, who are not phone and internet addicted, struggle to use exercise equipment because of surfing, texting, and messaging. Then we have those who must take a phone call while on a treadmill, as they struggle to have a conversation and force others to listen to their private business.
Some gyms post signs prohibiting the use of phones for these reasons and GDPR privacy issues; however, these signs are very often not heeded. The use of mobile phone in gyms is so prolific that mobile phones are being charged at the gym’s expense by some patrons who have surfed so much that their phone batteries are completely run down. It is taking longer and longer to get through a gym while people inconsiderately alleviate their chronic phone addiction. People are paying to use a gym, not watch people glued to their mobile while they berth themselves on a piece of apparatus for what can be hours at a time on social media. Unless the gym industry can ban phones and enforce such bans sufficiently, gym owners will inevitability see their businesses go rapidly downhill. – Yours, etc,
MAURICE FITZGERALD,
Shanbally,
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Co Cork.