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This FOX article, as the title suggests, looks at wearable technology as the biggest health and fitness trend. Wearable fitness technology is currently extremely popular. From smartwatches to heart rate monitors, wearables have definitely found their place in health and fitness.

Based on the K-wave concept from class, we are now in the “Summer” season of wearable technology, especially in the fitness world. This means that popularity is at an all time high. Even though the cycle is 40-60 years, we may be in that 40 years where fitness and health technology is actually popular.

As I mentioned before on this blog, bigger companies are also taking note of wearable technology’s popularity. Apple’s main appeal of the Apple Watch is that it is a fitness tracker, in addition to being an accessory used to call and text and even listen to music. Google also just bought Fitbit recently. Under Armour, a while ago, bought MyFitnessPal and has also released apps such as Map My Run.

Overall, wearable technology got bigger throughout 2019, and it is only going to expand in 2020. From smart watches to ear buds, wearables are definitely in their fitness niche.

#NewhouseTrend #wearables

Headspace is an attempt to bring secular meditation to the masses. Whether it succeeds in that goal is another question.

I wanted to take this moment to look at a wellness app that I personally use and why I think it deserved to be featured on my Tumblr. This app is called Headspace and it is an app that is centered around meditation and mindfulness.

Work and life can both get very stressful very quickly, and it is nice to get an idea of how to calm down and take a step back. Guided meditation does exactly this. It improves your mental health. Meditation in general could even make you more focused and better prepared to take on the world.

Business Insider reports that Headspace is designed to be an introductory step into meditation. “It expects you have never meditated before and may not understand the ‘point’ of meditation.” In this way, it takes a really important step toward its goal of making secular meditation that much more accessible.

Meditation and mindfulness are taking an even bigger position in mental health, and being able to put that into technology makes it even more useful and accessible. Most mental health apps these days are also working on the same concept, and it is such an easy way to make people that much more in tune with themselves and maybe help people develop healthier habits of their own.

I wanted to feature this app because it does have everything to do with mental health. As recommended to me by a mental health professional, it made an even bigger impact on my life and I want someone else to see this and maybe check it out for themselves.

#meditation #headspace #NewhouseTrend

Corporate Wellness has exploded in recent years. Meet 4 innovators who are helping improve employee wellbeing, both physical and mental.

Corporate wellness has been a concern, but not a priority until more recently. Since the boom in focusing on health, workplaces are increasing efforts to make their employees more health conscious. From implementing corporate health challenges to paying for gym memberships, corporations have put in time and money to make sure their employees stay fit so they can be in their best shape for what is most likely a more sedentary job.

This Forbes listicle draws attention to some bigger players in the newly popular corporate wellness market. For this post, I want to draw more attention to the innovations that stood out most to me and that could have the most impact on the workforce.

To start, BurnAlong stood out to me because it was technology based. I did partially pick it because my tumblr is about the technology associated with health and wellness, but I also picked it because I thought it was a great way to get everyone in the workplace on board with a health challenge. By using an app, it is easy to access and hopefully easier to use. Numbers themselves are also objective, so it seems like a great way to invoke some friendly competition among coworkers as well.

InsideOut25 was also a startup that sounded really interesting to me. It’s no secret that work can be draining, and there needs to be more of a focus on mental health. InsideOut25 provides that. They provide resources for employees such as coaches and video calls to therapists. Startups like these can make the workplace that much healthier as a whole.

#NewhouseTrend

A new study in the United States will use CRISPR gene-editing technology to attempt to treat LCA, a retinal condition that is one cause of inherited blindness. The study, which will take place later in 2019, is currently open for would-be patients to enroll. Here's what you need to know.

Moving slightly away from fitness-related technology, I wanted to use this article to talk more about health technology more in a medical way. This article talks about CRISPR, a new gene editing technology that got its start years ago, but is already making big strides in the technological world.

CRISPR is a gene editing technology that can actually alter how your genes are set up. In this way, scientists are using it in a preventative way. They are trying to prevent diseases that are inherited or in the genome in some way. In this case, Digital Trends talks about how CRISPR is being used to treat a cause of inherited blindness. The study is now open for enrollment and it could be another addition to what CRISPR can do. The article cited CRISPR as a breakthrough to get us malaria-resistant mosquitos and “life changing medical advances.”

Transforming genes could have a huge impact on health as a whole. We are getting closer to making ourselves exactly how we want. I think that depending how far this technology gets, we might be able to cure some kinds of cancer or other diseases like depression. We could make ourselves more fit, maybe more prone to healthier habits, or even do something as minor as changing eye color. I wonder what the possibilities could be if we made either CRISPR itself or a version of CRISPR available to the public. I think that people would use it to make themselves into their version of perfect, whatever that means to them. Even though CRISPR has been around for years, it still has major potential.

#crispr #NewhouseTrend

With the first basic iteration being something akin to a glorified pedometer that simply counted your daily steps, the latest breed of fitness trackers are anything but simple.

Modern technology has found its way into multiple places in our lives, and health is one of the most impacted areas. From the quantified self movement to medical advances, health and technology are now more interwoven than ever. This Tech Times article summarizes where health and technology first began their relationship, and also details where they are now.

The article states that “it all started with fitness.” I don’t know if I agree that it started in fitness. I think that it started more in the medical field, and then people probably wanted a more accessible way to track their health progress and goals, and thus it moved into fitness. I will say that fitness technology has grown so rapidly over the past decade. It is so easy to find a diet tracker, a fitness tracker, or even a sleep tracker almost anywhere you look. Accessibility is also a huge value to me, and since the growth of health and fitness technology happened, its accessibility increased so largely. A lot of wellness apps are so easy to use and offer a wide variety of service for free. They are also available on platforms like the App Store, readily available for download.

The article goes on to say that technology can help us understand ourselves. From DNA testing kits to the quantified self, technology makes it so much easier to have mostly if not completely objective data about ourselves, and be able to have it so accessible. Overall, technology is extremely helpful in helping us to understand patterns in ourselves, and that is the key contribution of wellness technology.

#NewhouseTrend #health #technology

‘Do I trust the person who made the app, and do I understand where this data is going?’

In a world driven by data, people are constantly trying to find new ways to use that data. Mental health apps have also been on the rise, especially when therapy and other mental health related services are so expensive and inaccessible for one reason or another. Mental health apps are also using data. No surprise there, as all apps use personal data. But the difference with mental health apps is that the data they collect may be more sensitive and personal, as opposed to usage data or other tracking. The biggest question here is: how much do we benefit from mental health apps using sensitive data?

Sending personal data without the knowledge of the user also raises questions about consent. Even if you agree to the terms and conditions of the app, does that alone make it okay for apps to send your likely-sensitive and personal data to places that you don’t necessarily know about?

The Verge reports on a smoking cessation app, which sounds like a great tool to help the user quit smoking. They talk about how that data is sold and it is not mentioned in the privacy policy. The recommended solutions that The Verge reports are to see if there even is a privacy policy, check to see when it was last updated, and to ask yourself whether or not you trust the app’s creator and whether or not you understand where the data is going. Data is incredibly useful, but people need to be more cautious in providing that data to companies and apps, especially ones that collect sensitive data.

#NewhouseTrend #mental health #apps

Google has made an offer to acquire Fitbit, Reuters reported, which would potentially give the firm a presence in the smartwatch market.

In more recent news, as of writing this blog post, Alphabet has already made an offer to buy Fitbit. This article is from a bit earlier in the process. Business Insider reports the advantages of acquiring the successful fitness-centered brand. These advantages include allowing Google to more firmly step into the smartwatch arena and help Fitbit catch up with Apple and Samsung, who are already making smartwatches. Google can also establish their presence in wearables and contribute to that trend.

I think that it is surprising that Google or any other company has not already purchased Fitbit. Fitbit, even though it is surpassed by Apple and Samsung, is still a recognizable name in the fitness industry. I would even argue that they led the wearable trend, and other companies have found ways to improve upon Fitbit’s flaws before Fitbit could do it themselves. Fitbit has more than just smartwatches in their inventory, and it might be a good idea for Google, if they do acquire Fitbit, to advertise those products more since they all pair with the Fitbit watches.

Improving human health has been the main supertrend focus on this Tumblr, and the technology involved with that has grown immensely from its beginnings. Now that people are starting to take fitness tracking more seriously, the market is absolutely perfect for big tech companies to dive into that field and to also pay close attention to this supertrend.

Smartwatches are only the beginning to wearable technology in the fitness world and multiple other companies have delved into wearables themselves. Overall, I think the fitness market is the best and most applicable place to put wearable technology.

#NewhouseTrend

The self-tracking trend is about much more than physical wellbeing.

The quantified self movement has taken on more popularity in recent years. Fitness tracking, sleep tracking, and calorie tracking have all been around but they now have made themselves a much bigger part of people’s lives. From being a simple journal entry to integration into apps and smart technology, self tracking seems to have a place in everyone’s lives. This Quartz article talks briefly about what self tracking is, how people use it, tells one tracker’s story, and illustrates who finds meaning in tracking.

The biggest appeals to self tracking are improving one’s health (much like a certain supertrend discussed in class), having data about yourself (if you’re interested in data), and having the ability to “life-hack” yourself, based on your own data.

Personally, I do track my metrics from time to time. Consistency is the biggest key to this to establish patterns in your data and to keep your reliability. Still, the importance of self tracking is really about what you do with your data. Just having it doesn’t do much; it’s about the interpretation and application into your own life. You may find that incorporating a certain thing or habit into your life may have some kind of effect on it. From there, you can establish a plan for yourself to keep positive effects going and “hack” yourself to a healthier lifestyle.

#NewhouseTrend