.svg)
The development of technology has been extremely quick in the past decade, it’s development has led to more implementations.
While this dominance and widespread use of technology has brought a lot of positive things to our attention, its large-scale implementation has to make us think.
We now carry a piece of technology everywhere, every day in our pockets, making us connected to the rest of the world, at all times.
Whether we like it or not, this change in our lives does have important effects. On the other side, tech has also helped us understand more deeply what our health and social needs are.
This article will go over what the health & social aspects of technology are, why it matters and how technology is implemented.
The health & social sector has risen because of technology. While you could run with a partner or join a gym to exercise with other people, technology has pushed the space to new highs by facilitating a lot of things.
Technology has made it much easier to find people with the same ambitions as you. Social media and instant messages make it extremely easy for individuals to plan a workout or go to the spa. At the same time, technology helps individuals get feedback on their workouts and insights on their evolution.
The health & social sector is a very niche sector that focuses on bringing the health sector together with the social industry. The idea is that exercise and well-being are best practiced with others as you might lack long-term motivation when exercising by yourself.
Running is the activity that probably makes the best use of this combination, we now see apps that, much like social media, allow you to share your runs, compare yourself to others and find running partners.
This combination is a very promising one and as wearables become more popular we should see this interaction strengthen further.
Now that we understand what the health & social sector is, let’s look at the reasons why technology is brought into the equation.
One aspect of bringing health to consumers is for them to try and understand themselves, what works best for them, what makes them feel best, and why is that? Technology helps in this sector because it allows users to make sense of the data they produce.
Take running, for example, algorithms could tell you what your best pace is, how long you can maintain it, if you’ve improved in the past month, it could help you realize that one day of rest isn’t enough and that you perform better when taking an extra day of rest.
While technology can’t tell you exactly what’s happening as the sector is still relatively next, it sure helps exhibit patterns and correlations.
Health & Social relies on technology because it allows people to easily connect with other people. The social part of the duo is almost entirely based on technology.
People can share visuals about where they ran, graphs about their performance, that ask other individuals one question: Can you beat me ?
This simple interaction that technology provides is at the basis of this combination, connecting people together means they push one another to better themselves and exercise more to eventually compete with their friends.
Technology lastly helps in another dimension. It makes it easy to plan and set goals as it can help you stay on track by warning you, helping you get some motivation, and reminding you of your initial goal.
Take running for example, as you run, your app can tell you about your progress, encouraging you to continue, live cheering features exist too, meaning that while you exercise, people can see that you exercise and cheer you live by sending you a message or an encouragement.
Technology aims at bringing both industries closer together, in this section, we’ll look at the technology that facilitates this interaction.
Smartphones are in large part responsible for this combination. Through various apps, they can help track your progress, remind you to exercise, and give you feedback on how you’ve been doing.
For example, most smartphones nowadays come equipped with a step counting app that can tell you to move around more or set a goal for you to move 10 000 steps a day to stay active.
Other apps track your sleep and encourage you to sleep at least 8 hours.
Many of these applications use your phone because of all the sensors and processing power that it has. The accelerometer and the GPS constitute much of what is needed to retrace what you’ve been doing, analyze it and give you information on your activity.
Wearables, in general, constitute the new promising technology for the combination of Health & Social. Much smaller than your smartphone, these pack the essential sensors that monitor your health. This could be heart rate sensors, oxygen level sensors, and other features.
The trend is now to pack as many sensors as possible to provide users with as many metrics as possible.
These devices offer the same applications as smartphones and an entire aspect of them is to examine all the data you create to provide a clear, easy-to-understand summary of your actions and what you need to do to stay in shape.
These insights can then be shared through a specific social media-like app that helps you connect with like-minded individuals and share your progress with them.
As smartphones keep getting more sophisticated, the next domain of their expansion is the Health & Social sector, where technology aims to get their users in great health. This ambition is mostly powered by smartphones and all types of wearables. Through their use, the field aims to provide an explanation of the user's data, help him connect with other users, and achieve his goals.
Spill the beans about your problem, challenge, intuition... and we'll bring a solution to life at lightning speed.
co-found a CLIMATE VENTURE
