We all know that technology has changed our lives. But how has it impacted our lifestyle and are there any opportunities we are not using yet? In this article we look at 10 areas where technology has changed our lifestyle and created new opportunities.
Area 1: Smarter Health – How Technology Has Changed our Lifestyle
Smarter Health devices have the ability to monitor our heartbeats and blood pressure, track and monitor exercise plans, and even monitor our sleeping patterns and weight. This helps with prevention and a healthy lifestyle. What is even more important is the fact that doctors and hospitals use smarter health for remote patient monitoring as part of the hospital at home movement that aims to lower costs and enable patients to recover at home.
Remote Patient Monitoring
Smarter health projects enable hospitals to monitor their patients at home. A great example is the Mayo Clinic. “Patients who are enrolled in the high risk program receive a remote patient monitoring kit that includes a blood pressure cuff, thermometer, pulse oximeter and a weight scale. They use these devices two to four times a day to measure their vital signs. These measurements are sent automatically to Mayo Clinic through a cellular-enabled tablet that patients receive with their kits. Remote Patient Monitoring nurses will also call patients to determine if they are experiencing symptoms such as nausea and shortness of breath. Patients who are at lower risk for complications record vital signs using the Mayo Clinic app. Each day, these patients receive a notification on their mobile device letting them know that they need to provide information to their care team through the Mayo Clinic app.”
This is one of the major areas where we can see how technology has changed our lifestyle.
What is a Smart Health Community?
According to deloitte.com “A smart health community (SHC) is an entity that operates largely outside of the traditional health care system and encourages disease prevention and overall well-being in a geographic or virtual community setting. The basics of SHCs have been around for many years but have evolved because of technological advances and a greater understanding of health behavior change derived from the behavioral sciences.
Core features of Smart Health Communities
- They empower individuals to proactively manage their health and well-being;
- They foster a sense of community and belonging;
- Smart health communities use digital technology and behavioral science;
- They use data to meaningfully improve outcomes; and
- Smart health communities create new and innovative ecosystems.”
Example of a Smart Health Community – How Technology Has Changed our Lifestyle
Lark.com offers virtual programs for prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension. Over the course of year-long program members learn to apply changes to their diet, physical activity, sleep habits, stress management, and more through interactive coaching.
Be it a well-timed text message, an individually tailored nudge, or a new way of framing a choice or a problem—to help individuals make decisions to improve their health.
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Smart Health Stats – How Technology Has Changed our Lifestyle
Smarter Health Stats 1: Percentage of People Using Smartwatches
“Around 80 percent in the age group 18-64 years stated that in the past 12 months they had used smartwatches.” Source: statista.com
Smarter Health Stats 2: Google Queries as a Source to Predict Health Prevalence
“Google queries can be used by health care officials to nowcast asthma prevalence by city, state, or nationally, subject to future availability of daily, weekly, or monthly data on reported cases.” Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Smarter Health Stats 3: A Third of Americans Need a Home Blood Pressure Monitor
“104 million Americans routinely should use a blood pressure machine at home” Source: heart.org
Smarter Health Stats 4: Medical Alert systems for Elderlies Used in the US
Approximately 7 million medical alert systems are used in the United States in 2021. Source: healthylifestyleflorida.com
Smarter Health Stats 5: Glucose Monitoring Devices Used in the US
Nearly 2 million people with diabetes wear glucose monitors today. Source: nbcnews.com
Area 2: Smarter Houses – How Has Technology Changed our Lifestyle
Technology has changed the way we live in our homes. No matter if it is in the kitchen, bedroom, living room or bathroom, many devices have made our lives much easier. For example, a smart thermostat is an app-enabled device, you can adjust your thermostat remotely anywhere your phone has a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. It allows you to manage your heat and AC whether you’re
Smarter Kitchens
There are smart vacuum cleaners that clean on demand. We can turn on our sinks and open our waste disposals via voice. You can look into your smart refrigerator while you are doing your groceries.
Smarter Kitchen Stats
“9 percent of households in the United States own a major smart appliance” Source: statista.com
Smarter Bathrooms
A smart scale can keep track of your weight, body fat and body composition. It can also be connected to your smartwatch or send your data to your physician. A smart toilet can clean you after using the toilet and turns on a safety light. A mirror can include a TV and you can tell your mirror to turn on light. A smart shower can also be turned on via voice. You can set a timer or control the water pressure without using your hands.
How about a smart floor heating to always have warm feet when getting up in the morning? Or are you a spa person? A shower steam generator can turn your bathroom into your personal spa.
Smarter Bedrooms – How Technology Has Changed our Lifestyle
A smart air purifier can heat, cool and clean the air in your bedroom at the same time. Smart beds can not only collect data about your sleep but also be adjusted to your needs. The head or foot part can be elevated and the bed can help you to get up so that you don’t need to ask for help – in case you have a mobility issue.
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Smarter Living Rooms
No need to look for the remote control. Simply control the TV with your voice and turn on a light.
Smarter Safety – How Technology Has Changed our Lifestyle
No smart look at your door can ensure that help gets in even if you cannot open the door yourself or you are not at home. Simple and inexpensive security systems can help you monitor whoever is at the doorstep or wildlife in your backyard. Connect it to your phone and even to your kids phone and you will feel much safer than ever.
Smarter Homes Stats
“In 2021, 41.9% of US households will use a smart home device, expanding to 48.4% by 2025.” Source: emarketer.com
Area 3: Smarter Shopping – How Technology Has Changed Our Lifestyle
Today we can order almost everything from our home. No need to leave the house and invest time and energy to get to a store anymore. Amazon.com as the biggest retailer offers almost everything. What makes it even better is the fact that Amazon is amazing with returns and warranty. During a certain time frame they take almost every item back. Furthermore, they have great warranty and therefore save you the hassle transporting the item back to a store.
With glasses you can even try them virtually at home and furniture comes right to your doorstep – instead of having to walk to big stores to find out that there is nothing you like.
Area 4: Smarter Money
One of the biggest impacts technology has had on our lifestyle is online payment. We can pay everything from home – no matter if we use our credit card, amazon or apple pay. In addition, we can pay our bills, buy and sell stocks from everywhere in the world. Most reasons why we had to go to the bank do not exist anymore. What is even more surprising for many of us is cryptocurrency technology.
“A cryptocurrency is a form of digital asset based on a network that is distributed across a large number of computers. This decentralized structure allows them to exist outside the control of governments and central authorities.
The advantages of cryptocurrencies include cheaper and faster money transfers and decentralized systems that do not collapse at a single point of failure.
The disadvantages of cryptocurrencies include their price volatility, high energy consumption for mining activities, and use in criminal activities.”
Area 5: Smarter Communication – Technology has Changed Our Lifestyle
Since the pandemic started everyone can use Zoom or other forms of video calls to meet with friends and families virtually. Even annual meeting and conferences are held online and save us time and money. In addition, many of us use social media to reconnect with friends and build new relationships. Even dating is mainly virtually and many people have found their spouse via an online platform.
Another new form of communication takes place in our homes. With smart technology we can turn on a TV, light, water faucet or even trash can via voice. In case of emergency you can tell Alexa to call your loved ones and a smart door lock can open the front door to a paramedic.
Area 6: Lifelong Working
Working from home has given many of us the chance of lifelong working. No commuting, more flexible hours, less traveling due to virtual meetings, and being able to choose where we work from. All this is made possible thanks to technological advancements the connection of hardware and broadband – even on remote places in Florida.
Area 7: Lifelong Learning – Technology has Changed Our Lifestyle
No matter of you want to learn a new language, play an instrument like a piano for example, pick up a new hobby or get another university degree. A 75 year old veteran in Florida had dreamed of finishing his university degree. An online course at the University in Phoenix makes his dream come true.
Today, if we want to find something out, it’s just a couple of clicks away. We either use our smartphone or ask Amazon’s cloud-based voice service Alexa.
Area 8: Better Information Access
We take it for granted but it wasn’t so long ago that you’d have to use a dictionary to find out more in depth information about a subject. Now, due to these advances in technology, you can find hundreds of thousands of web pages dedicated to pretty much anything you can dream of – just by using a search engine like google.com, yahoo.com or bing. The first internet search tool called Archie, which was released on September 10, 1990. Today google gets 227 million searches an hour and about 5.4 billion Google searches per day.
Area 9: Decreased Privacy
“As smartphones and other internet-connected devices have become more widespread, 31% of U.S. adults now report that they go online “almost constantly,” up from 21% in 2015, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 25 to Feb. 8, 2021.”
For example: We shop on Amazon, we use FaceTime to call friends and family. We connect to others via Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn. We book our next trip via booking.com and watch TV on Netflix.
Google, Facebook, Amazon know more about our shopping behavior than we do ourselves. In addition, there are hackers and scammers out there trying to get our data and passwords. Tackers try to keep track of our online activity. Therefore, we need cleaner and security programs like ccleaner free.
Area 10: Smarter Entertainment
Many of us have our own home theaters with screens and projectors set up in our living rooms or basements. On demand movies on Disney or Netflix give us a new quality of life quality. LED technology gives us the feeling of being part of the movie. Amazon prime, HBO max and co know our movie favorites and suggest us movies all the time. No need to visit movie theaters anymore.
A Word from healthylifestyleflorida.com
All of us have to adapt to technological changes and be open to learn. The reason is that technology makes our life easier and better – every year more and more. Have the courage to get more familiar with the latest technology.
