That’s a
Smart Watch...
When the smartwatch first started being worn by a friend of mine, I was sure it would only make health routines more difficult. I began racing in marathons and thought I’d try out a watch to provide me with more details on my pace, distance and speed. Suddenly, I had so much data. I barely had to think about a thing but to follow what I am told.
My Smartwatch measured every movement, calculating what activities I should work on. If the numbers improved, I would feel rewarded. And they did get better. As I worked to improve my time, I was habitually following the numbers on each achievement. Every morning before work, instead of noticing if I was still tired, I found myself opening the app to check on sleep patterns. This is when I began to wonder about the product designed to improve and monitor my achievements. Was it interfering with my health by controlling me, changing me as a person?
A device which is designed to monitor your every move will easily dominate you. Almost everyone who bought the device would not ignore what it tells them― or would they? After all, it is only a concealed micro-chip that presents itself as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Health and well-being cannot be found on a digital screen.
One night while out for a meal I was unexpectedly detained by my phone. I was peering at it under the table, opening the app for my smart watch, checking whether the numbers it assigned to my “training status” had improved since I finished my run earlier. The numbers hadn’t moved, so I closed the app and restarted it, feeling uncomfortable when the figures remained unchanged. Was it frozen?
I thought these smart watches were useful in achieving race times once out of reach. With it there were metrics you probably had never used before, like lactate thresholds, oxygen and heart rate levels. At a glimpse, I was being told just how functional I could be. Such a responsive looking face, offering a recipe for instant success. Does that mean I am dependent on what is always sitting on my wrist?
Tim Cook’s Apple watches are supposed to promote health and wellness and to surpass what the company has done so far with the iPhone. Cook says he has been receiving letters from people who say the Apple Watch had saved their life. A guestimate of 230 million watches are to be shipped out by 2026. Tim Cook feels on top of the world since they can now be marketed as an essential medical device during today’s pandemic.
Some brands have an ECG monitor allowing you to check for atrial fibrillation. There are pulse oximeters for testing with coronavirus infection by checking low oxygen levels. Models can track damaging UV rays to their skin. You might have seen a current commercial which explains how the Apple Watch calls for help if you should ever fall unconscious. And there is a product where you breathe into a tube that is supposed to read your metabolism and let you know if you should eat more.
Will the constant monitoring of vital signs improve your health? The answer is still spinning in the clouds. People trying to lose weight while using wearable technology actually lost less weight than others who opted to follow their own judgement.
Using my smart watch when I wake up in the morning I check the app to see how I slept — instead of simply checking to see if I was still tired. When I discovered my watch could measure my stress levels, it was as if had found a solution to all my problems. Oddly enough though, if I used my watch to monitor my stress, the higher my stress levels would be.
While midway through a marathon training routine, I discovered a new trick: My watch could measure my overall fitness level, assigning it a number, plotting its change over time and telling me how my levels compared with others, sorted by gender and age. I was amazed. If it feels like an addiction, that’s because it can work similarly to smartphone and other digital addictions. Dependency is what these devices are designed to foster.
These technologies have, in a way, distorted exercise. You may think a wearable device that keeps track of your actions couldn’t possibly be bad because it’s just a watch which can monitor your heart rate, which is about staying fit. It’s very easy to become dependent on these wearable devices which are purely and simply, an addiction.
For a time, my smart watch probably did help me get healthier. I know I felt good. But I started to feel that healthy feelings couldn’t be felt within my body any more. It just felt weird― a process now where you need to see your score before you could feel you had achieved anything. Numbers were needed to validate any success. Exercise no longer relieved pressure but possibly added to it.
These watches can be useful for health data, reminding you to move more or maybe even make that emergency call for you if you ever lose consciousness. At the same time, it might be useful give the numbers a rest. Listen to what your body tells you and not some battery-operated fashion item.
This pandemic has allowed us more time to think constructively, where we feel a little closer to nature and our neglected bodies. Especially when our alter ego keeps saying― “lose the watch, lose the watch…”
The adjustment can be slightly off-putting. Once you lose some confidence in any regular routine and choose an alternative it takes a while to bounce back. Still, we do have the power to make changes in our life whenever we choose to.
###
Smart Watch...
When the smartwatch first started being worn by a friend of mine, I was sure it would only make health routines more difficult. I began racing in marathons and thought I’d try out a watch to provide me with more details on my pace, distance and speed. Suddenly, I had so much data. I barely had to think about a thing but to follow what I am told.
My Smartwatch measured every movement, calculating what activities I should work on. If the numbers improved, I would feel rewarded. And they did get better. As I worked to improve my time, I was habitually following the numbers on each achievement. Every morning before work, instead of noticing if I was still tired, I found myself opening the app to check on sleep patterns. This is when I began to wonder about the product designed to improve and monitor my achievements. Was it interfering with my health by controlling me, changing me as a person?
A device which is designed to monitor your every move will easily dominate you. Almost everyone who bought the device would not ignore what it tells them― or would they? After all, it is only a concealed micro-chip that presents itself as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Health and well-being cannot be found on a digital screen.
One night while out for a meal I was unexpectedly detained by my phone. I was peering at it under the table, opening the app for my smart watch, checking whether the numbers it assigned to my “training status” had improved since I finished my run earlier. The numbers hadn’t moved, so I closed the app and restarted it, feeling uncomfortable when the figures remained unchanged. Was it frozen?
I thought these smart watches were useful in achieving race times once out of reach. With it there were metrics you probably had never used before, like lactate thresholds, oxygen and heart rate levels. At a glimpse, I was being told just how functional I could be. Such a responsive looking face, offering a recipe for instant success. Does that mean I am dependent on what is always sitting on my wrist?
Tim Cook’s Apple watches are supposed to promote health and wellness and to surpass what the company has done so far with the iPhone. Cook says he has been receiving letters from people who say the Apple Watch had saved their life. A guestimate of 230 million watches are to be shipped out by 2026. Tim Cook feels on top of the world since they can now be marketed as an essential medical device during today’s pandemic.
Some brands have an ECG monitor allowing you to check for atrial fibrillation. There are pulse oximeters for testing with coronavirus infection by checking low oxygen levels. Models can track damaging UV rays to their skin. You might have seen a current commercial which explains how the Apple Watch calls for help if you should ever fall unconscious. And there is a product where you breathe into a tube that is supposed to read your metabolism and let you know if you should eat more.
Will the constant monitoring of vital signs improve your health? The answer is still spinning in the clouds. People trying to lose weight while using wearable technology actually lost less weight than others who opted to follow their own judgement.
Using my smart watch when I wake up in the morning I check the app to see how I slept — instead of simply checking to see if I was still tired. When I discovered my watch could measure my stress levels, it was as if had found a solution to all my problems. Oddly enough though, if I used my watch to monitor my stress, the higher my stress levels would be.
While midway through a marathon training routine, I discovered a new trick: My watch could measure my overall fitness level, assigning it a number, plotting its change over time and telling me how my levels compared with others, sorted by gender and age. I was amazed. If it feels like an addiction, that’s because it can work similarly to smartphone and other digital addictions. Dependency is what these devices are designed to foster.
These technologies have, in a way, distorted exercise. You may think a wearable device that keeps track of your actions couldn’t possibly be bad because it’s just a watch which can monitor your heart rate, which is about staying fit. It’s very easy to become dependent on these wearable devices which are purely and simply, an addiction.
For a time, my smart watch probably did help me get healthier. I know I felt good. But I started to feel that healthy feelings couldn’t be felt within my body any more. It just felt weird― a process now where you need to see your score before you could feel you had achieved anything. Numbers were needed to validate any success. Exercise no longer relieved pressure but possibly added to it.
These watches can be useful for health data, reminding you to move more or maybe even make that emergency call for you if you ever lose consciousness. At the same time, it might be useful give the numbers a rest. Listen to what your body tells you and not some battery-operated fashion item.
This pandemic has allowed us more time to think constructively, where we feel a little closer to nature and our neglected bodies. Especially when our alter ego keeps saying― “lose the watch, lose the watch…”
The adjustment can be slightly off-putting. Once you lose some confidence in any regular routine and choose an alternative it takes a while to bounce back. Still, we do have the power to make changes in our life whenever we choose to.
###
Human Beings
Versus
Digital Technology
The next 50 years of human history will be determined by our relationship we have with machines. Lives have gone hand-in-hand with technology since we created fire and primitive tools. Tools that we invented are a huge part of each new day that helps us to evolve.
By altering the scale of things, like the ubiquitous Smartphone, we are guided to a narrowing pathway and an unknown future for all humankind. No need to be concerned about the animals. They cannot relate to the digital era like we do, their so-called superiors, so they will gradually disappear, although digitally kept alive on animal kingdom movies.
I'm thinking of producing a movie titled " Silencing the Nerds", where essentially men in their twenties, thirties and forties have swamped our natural thought patterns with robotic communication. Every common practice is being tweaked so that it blends in with our growing population. Sounds okay, but who really wants to live with such nature-crushing godlike technology.
Technology and primarily digital technology is changing rapidly, while human nature will almost always stay the same. Our brains formed around seven million years ago, to grow more rapidly around two million years ago. The problem we're left with is to either boost the human brain several more notches or try to tame technology so each environment we are involved in is aesthetically acceptable.
To find victory we must pluck out the nerdy invaders who are filling too many heads with the wrong information about their way of accepting a digitally perfect society.
Nature gives us choices of seasons, of temperatures so it's cold, it's wet or it's hot. Through political correctness we are left with a dwindling amount of choices. I don't have a problem with that as long as I still have a choice. But in the future if there is no choice, you may as well crawl inside a tortoise shell and flip yourself upside down. We have the right to choose because we are human beings. Humanoids? I'll leave that for MOVIEWORLD…
For the
Home
Handyman
Let's look at the latest outdoor activities on television. It seems that tradies are showing us how to make plant stands that have been made to last possibly not much longer than the duration of that Homemaker program. They show the screws being power driven in. The camera pans away as a screw splits the wood. Next scene is a couple of sandpaper rubs then a paint roller colours the stands to balance the picture to suit everyone's HD TV screen.
These shows reveal people doing things with their hands but the show is really to attract others to join in so their house and yard can be re-fashioned. Before and after shots and tricky camera work helps to achieve just how simple each task appears. If it's broken or if it's unsightly it can be fixed by using today's technology.
Simple. The tips are shown so quickly that you must take snaps of the TV screen with your camera before another time-wasting commercial arrives.
When we look at the latest weight–loss pill or pain reliever, a high-tech concoction is recommended, which is always more complicated and expensive. I find relief can be found by using simplicity and old home remedies.
If you go anywhere today you will see people with both hands waist high and their heads down scrolling over their latest message from friends, lovers or offers of a lifetime. These advertisements nearly always need unsubscribing from ―or adding to your spam list.
Why are we so focused on ourselves. Our mind and our imagination run wild and before we know it that brief perusal on the mobile stole our attention for almost half-an-hour. And that time lost could be seen in open spaces during early morning exercise. It is amazing how many people have been caught-out behind the wheel, glancing downward while the fingers tap and slide over their mobile phone screen. A message says: "Can we meet for a game of volleyball at the beach?" "Not today, I need to buy more time for my phone". Is their reply. Human relationships are being mis-managed by this technology.
Do we find truth in what is offered by the large companies that have mega-million dollar plans to save our planet. Does it involve more of this self-indulgent behaviour? Whose interest is really being served? Years ago before computers, self-indulgence didn't have us on call 24/7 and the time used was useful time where we might read a novel, do some handiwork around the house ―you might even find the time to write to a distant friend, maybe go shopping then catch up with a mate over coffee.
If we have human emotion versus computer logic– who is going to succeed? The large companies are conveniently stealing our data, they weaken our relationships, invade our true vision of reality and many users of this technology are being swayed by "promises" for a veiled, aimlessly self-indulgent future.
Don't get me wrong, computers are priceless to me and any other digital technology. It is just a case of whether you should have accepted and downloaded that last program which was anti-virus approved and strangely listed as "FREE".
We, out of all living species, appear to be the most adaptable creatures on earth also the most intuitive and nurturing souls in this Universe. There is no better way to live your life in Nature than with a brain that can decide, so we can communicate with others while enriching mind and body to carry us through time.
Perhaps the whole digital-techno world of computers, mobiles even robots could be re-invented (thanks to our beautiful minds) so that anything computerised needs to use commonsense and be more interactive―
###
Versus
Digital Technology
The next 50 years of human history will be determined by our relationship we have with machines. Lives have gone hand-in-hand with technology since we created fire and primitive tools. Tools that we invented are a huge part of each new day that helps us to evolve.
By altering the scale of things, like the ubiquitous Smartphone, we are guided to a narrowing pathway and an unknown future for all humankind. No need to be concerned about the animals. They cannot relate to the digital era like we do, their so-called superiors, so they will gradually disappear, although digitally kept alive on animal kingdom movies.
I'm thinking of producing a movie titled " Silencing the Nerds", where essentially men in their twenties, thirties and forties have swamped our natural thought patterns with robotic communication. Every common practice is being tweaked so that it blends in with our growing population. Sounds okay, but who really wants to live with such nature-crushing godlike technology.
Technology and primarily digital technology is changing rapidly, while human nature will almost always stay the same. Our brains formed around seven million years ago, to grow more rapidly around two million years ago. The problem we're left with is to either boost the human brain several more notches or try to tame technology so each environment we are involved in is aesthetically acceptable.
To find victory we must pluck out the nerdy invaders who are filling too many heads with the wrong information about their way of accepting a digitally perfect society.
Nature gives us choices of seasons, of temperatures so it's cold, it's wet or it's hot. Through political correctness we are left with a dwindling amount of choices. I don't have a problem with that as long as I still have a choice. But in the future if there is no choice, you may as well crawl inside a tortoise shell and flip yourself upside down. We have the right to choose because we are human beings. Humanoids? I'll leave that for MOVIEWORLD…
For the
Home
Handyman
Let's look at the latest outdoor activities on television. It seems that tradies are showing us how to make plant stands that have been made to last possibly not much longer than the duration of that Homemaker program. They show the screws being power driven in. The camera pans away as a screw splits the wood. Next scene is a couple of sandpaper rubs then a paint roller colours the stands to balance the picture to suit everyone's HD TV screen.
These shows reveal people doing things with their hands but the show is really to attract others to join in so their house and yard can be re-fashioned. Before and after shots and tricky camera work helps to achieve just how simple each task appears. If it's broken or if it's unsightly it can be fixed by using today's technology.
Simple. The tips are shown so quickly that you must take snaps of the TV screen with your camera before another time-wasting commercial arrives.
When we look at the latest weight–loss pill or pain reliever, a high-tech concoction is recommended, which is always more complicated and expensive. I find relief can be found by using simplicity and old home remedies.
If you go anywhere today you will see people with both hands waist high and their heads down scrolling over their latest message from friends, lovers or offers of a lifetime. These advertisements nearly always need unsubscribing from ―or adding to your spam list.
Why are we so focused on ourselves. Our mind and our imagination run wild and before we know it that brief perusal on the mobile stole our attention for almost half-an-hour. And that time lost could be seen in open spaces during early morning exercise. It is amazing how many people have been caught-out behind the wheel, glancing downward while the fingers tap and slide over their mobile phone screen. A message says: "Can we meet for a game of volleyball at the beach?" "Not today, I need to buy more time for my phone". Is their reply. Human relationships are being mis-managed by this technology.
Do we find truth in what is offered by the large companies that have mega-million dollar plans to save our planet. Does it involve more of this self-indulgent behaviour? Whose interest is really being served? Years ago before computers, self-indulgence didn't have us on call 24/7 and the time used was useful time where we might read a novel, do some handiwork around the house ―you might even find the time to write to a distant friend, maybe go shopping then catch up with a mate over coffee.
If we have human emotion versus computer logic– who is going to succeed? The large companies are conveniently stealing our data, they weaken our relationships, invade our true vision of reality and many users of this technology are being swayed by "promises" for a veiled, aimlessly self-indulgent future.
Don't get me wrong, computers are priceless to me and any other digital technology. It is just a case of whether you should have accepted and downloaded that last program which was anti-virus approved and strangely listed as "FREE".
We, out of all living species, appear to be the most adaptable creatures on earth also the most intuitive and nurturing souls in this Universe. There is no better way to live your life in Nature than with a brain that can decide, so we can communicate with others while enriching mind and body to carry us through time.
Perhaps the whole digital-techno world of computers, mobiles even robots could be re-invented (thanks to our beautiful minds) so that anything computerised needs to use commonsense and be more interactive―
###
