A few days ago, the LA Times published a collection of articles titled “What’s making us fat?” in which they briefly summarize each of the latest fads…I mean “theories”…about why Americans, specifically those living in the US, have become more and more obese in the past 30 years.

The article left out one important theory–mine.  As the title of this post indicates, my theory is that the invention of the Internet has made us fat.  All that time in front of computers has made us fat.  We are chained to our desk because IM has made us too lazy to get up and walk the 20 feet to our co-worker’s desk.  We no longer have to thumb through the yellow pages or actually dial a phone.  Google does it for us from the convenience of our browser.  Leg work has been replaced by finger work, and we don’t even lift our wrists to type.  We rest them on gel-filled, ergonomic wrist rests.  We don’t even use dictionaries any more.  Just right click the word with the red squiggles under it and the browser will spell it for you.

So, the next time someone asks you why America is getting fatter, blame Al Gore, and rest assured that the rest of the world will be joining us as they become more and more wired.