How your step count became ultimate modern humblebrag

Recently, I've been compulsively returning to the little red heart on my phone's home screen. It's not the gateway to some intriguing new dating app or an embarrassingly addictive mobile game — the truth is far more boring. The object of my obsession is Apple's health tracker, which stores up stats on how many steps I've taken each day, week and month.

- Katie Rosseinsky

On a typical weekday, I'm aiming to reach 10,000, the number that's been drilled into our brains as the optimum. Last Saturday, during a particularly active hen do, I managed to hit the 26,000 mark; the day kicked off with a three-hour hike, a particularly obvious tell for the fact that my friends and I are now in our thirties.

Did I bang on about this jaw-dropping achievement to everyone I encountered afterwards? Of course I did. That's because, over the past few years, the step count has become a bit of a health humblebrag, a low-key way to notify others that yes, you are in fact a well-rounded, well-exercised human being with a highly calibrated work-life balance. And, in tandem, walking has undergone a stealthy rebrand. Once the most unassuming form of working out, it's now acquired a certain gloss. "Health, and the pursuit of wellness more generally, are hyper-aspirational in today's world," says Gabriela Serpa Royo, cultural strategist at Canvas8, a consumer insights agency. "There's something about the luxury of walking, too. If you're someone who walks then you're someone who takes the time to take care of yourself."