Hello and Happy Monday.
First of all I miss my husband. Dearly! Not being together is tough. Some days are harder than others and simply put – today sucked. He felt the same way and wrote to me that he misses me in the mornings a lot and that this is the worst time. Oh well, I hope it is all worth it in the end and I stop whining now and eat some hardboiled eggs and cheese or I try a recipe from Budget Bytes to spice up my mood. This usually works.
While missing my husband I remembered a great conversation we had not too long ago while sitting in our little office sharing a bottle of wine and writing. We spoke about Doctor Google. I don’t know if you have ever googled any symptoms you might have experienced, are not comfortable with or are wondering about, but I did. Many many times already. Sort of like “My left eye is twitching for a couple of days now on and off. What could it be?” Or “I did not have my period in seven days, I am on birth control and my right eye twitches. What could that be?” When I was pregnant with my son I used Doctor Google ALL the time. No kidding. Whatever symptom I felt that was something out of the ordinary I googled it. I went on Baby forums to discuss with “other mothers or mother’s to be” what this and that could mean. I don’t know if you heard of Doctor on Demand but this website and downloadable app does exist. Whatever works for you, right? Are you a hypochondriac? In German the word is Hypochonder but I think it could easily be replaced by Cyberchonder. [Wondering: Did I just invent a word?]
So the other day I ran into a friend while I was outside with my son and his new bicycle [I still cannot believe it. Can someone stop the time? He was just born, no?] and I asked her how she is doing. She literally looked at her phone to check one of her million apps to show me her latest heart rate while running followed by her weight tracker.
Okay, I am running around with my son all day, I am breathing normally, eating healthy [mostly, damn chocolate you!] and I get a decent amount of sleep. And if someone asks me how I am, I do not have to check my phone constantly. I know way too many people who use health trackers, digital step-counters, fitness-wristbands and whatnot and trust all these devices to measure their life. Isn’t it almost like an app a day keeps the doctor away? Many don’t even listen to their body anymore but rather rely on these health checkers to keep track of every move they take. Some use logbooks to document every physical and psychological condition they are in. From food intake, pulse measurements, heart beat, cycle, oxygen level, sleeping phases and weight reduction- everything is trackable and can be even shared online on Facebook with your “friends”.
There is even an app that tells you if you are good in bed. It might look something like this [and no, this is not my spreadsheet, hah!]:
Researchers already work on robots that are able to feel, show emotions, try to give them consciousness and such to make them humanlike for a long time. Do we want to be all about calculations and so predictable? When do they come out with a psychopath-shazam app? HAHA! Yep, I am funny! And I would maybe download this one! As far as my life goes, I rather run around until I am completely out of breath while chasing my son. And I won’t control or check my heart rate with an app. I believe that if one uses a navigation system all the time loses the fun in life. I rather train my instinct, intuition and ignorance than to question my body functions through some apps constantly. Also, I find most of them way too complicated to use on a daily basis. The closer you measure and look, the more you figure out and find something.
And if I am in bed and my heart beats weird or I am tossing and turning I do not need to track this with some apps. The only thing I miss is my husband or sleep. [Je t’aime mon amour!] The world is crazy and fast as it is and you might think by measuring and controlling at least the screen of your phone you figured it all out. Just be careful that you won’t run in front of a car while checking the app that counts your steps.
