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One thing that 2020 has taught us is the power of technology. I mean, as if we didn’t know how incredible technology was anyway, we’ve gone above and beyond what we thought capable this year. Technology has helped up stay connected, stay healthy and save lives.
Photo by Mathilde Langevin on Unsplash
One of my favourite technology related triumphs of the year has to be when Formula 1 teams used their expertise and resources to create “Project Pitlane“, which helped create CPAP devices for COVID sufferers in hospital. As much as we moan about social media and talk about how easy things were before the world went online, my gosh this year has shown how far we’ve come.
But today I want to talk about technology and self care. Two topics that probably don’t often get stuck together in the same sentence. When we think of self care, we think of getting ourselves OFFLINE and away from technology. In almost all self care related posts you read, the kind of things recommended to us are going for a walk, having a bath or having a social media detox.
Related Read: 40 Winter Self Care Ideas
And whilst all of those are EXTREMELY valid forms of self care (all 3 of which I do on a regular basis) I want to discuss the possibilities of a future where Artificial Intelligence can aid us with our self care. IVS technology is involved in so many industries, such as automotive, electronics and printing. What ways can technology and AI assist us in having the most optimum self care routine possible?
Monitoring our vitamin levels
I’m looking into a future where everything about our health and well-being can be monitored passively. So it doesn’t require us to put the effort in ourselves. If you’ve seen the TV show Humans, you’ll know what I mean. So I feel like having a system that could monitor our vitamin levels would be a really helpful way to aid with self care.
Because we all know by now that the way we feel both mentally and physically can definitely be related to our vitamin levels. Take a vitamin D deficiency for example. How handy would it be to have an app or heck, even a little robot sitting in the corner of your room to tell you when your vitamin D was low so maybe you should go get some sun?
Reminding us to take vitamins and medication
And following on from this, having that constant reminder to take vitamins and medication would be very handy as well. I’m sure there are certain apps for certain conditions which do do this but I’m not aware of any myself. Aside from setting an alarm on your phone to remind you.
But imagine having AI to do that for you? There would be absolutely no chance of you missing a pill ever again!
Creating a bespoke routine based on our needs
All our self care routines and needs are different. We all need different things at different times and what works for one person, might not work for another. There’s no point trying to make someone take a bubble bath in the name of self care if they hate baths, right. It’s not going to make them feel better.
Imagine having an AI system that knows what we want and what we respond to. A system that knows which activities make us happy or relaxed and can curate a bespoke routine especially for us on a day to day basis, depending on what we need and how we feel on any given day. Okay I might be getting TOTALLY ahead of myself here but how cool and helpful would that be?
Suggesting activities based on our mood
Similar to the first point I made about a potential system being able to let us know when we need to act on our vitamin levels being low but in this case, it can monitor our MOOD. And let us know when we’re getting too stressed or too agitated and suggest relevant activities based on our mood so we can tend to those things before they reach a tipping point.
Which I think is often a problem when it comes to self care in this society. We tend to think self care is ONLY relevant when we’re mega stressed or we need a break but it’s not. Self care is needed all the time, every day, whatever our mood.
Personalized diet plans
Of course there are already nutritionists and plans and programs out there that can offer advice and suggestions on diets, food and diet plans. But imagine having all of the above in the SAME PLACE. Within the same system or program so we have all this vital information there in one handy place.
Better yet, if we’re looking wayyy into the future of AI, our own personal little chef robots to do our shopping and cook our meals? Just a thought!