Parker Ehret

jawbone UP

if you’re already aware of the amount of sleep you get, what your exercise habits are, and the meals that you eat, the jawbone UP may be an unnecessary purchase.

the one thing it does well is make you aware. however, it’s a pain in the ass to constantly keep it current.

you can’t add past meals. so, if you don’t log your meal at the moment you start eating, it doesn’t get tracked.

also, you can’t add past sleep. so, if you don’t put it into sleep mode, it doesn’t track your night’s sleep. i will say, that on the nights that i put it into sleep mode, it did a great job of recognizing my sleep cycle and woke me up during a period of light sleep, just as advertised.

but, right now, i don’t see how it provides any long-term value. it doesn’t make recommendations. it only makes you aware.

you can add friends and create a “team”, which allows you to track all your habits, and compare them to your friends. i feel like jawbone tried to put a gamification layer on top of your daily health habits in an effort to make you compete to be healthier. 

eventually, people will get tired of games and need something useful and helpful. however, i’m unsure of jawbone’s long-term plan as to what they’re gonna do with all the data they’ve collected from each user. 

i would love to be notified, and given personalized recommendations, of ways that i can be a better person, or feel healthier, based on my past habits. i would love if the jawbone UP found holes in my schedule and told me the best times to schedule a workout. i would love if i got a push notification saying that i’ve average 6 hours of sleep for the past 5 nights and should make a plan to get a full night of sleep soon. i would love if it told me when i might be prone to having an unhealthy snack and that i should opt for baby carrots instead of a cookie. 

until jawbone figures out how i can input data easier, and how all of that data can be useful on a long-term basis, it’s more of a hassle than helpful.

knowledge is power

knowledge is power…

…that’s the problem that I have with major social networking sites.

when you confirm a request on a social networking site, you’re authorizing the knowledge of your life. your past interactions, moments, and photos, all become public knowledge. people can go through your conversations, and sift through past documented relationships.

the issue that I have is who people become when they are on these sites, and the problems that follow. when you hand over this power, a person is given two options… respect it, or abuse it. even if someone takes advantage of this given power, they should respect the fact that it was willfully given. unfortunately, I’ve found that most people abuse this power. drama ensues.

all this content

what happens with all this content? what happens with all the stuff i’ve “liked” and bookmarked? most importantly, where will it all end up?

i currently have a twitter for little thoughts, tumblr for big thoughts, flickr for film photos, instagram for mobile photos, i use gowalla as my social passport, i have vimeo for big videos, and now viddy for mobile videos.

that’s 7 sites that i add content to. 7 places that i bookmark content, and 7 places where i “like” things. 

i consider myself a minimalist, yet have now become an online pack rat. different accounts filled with years of uploads, and hearts, and thumbs up, and stars.

but why?

what am i ultimately gonna do with all of that content?

what am i gonna do with the 200 photos that i like on flickr? …or the 300 blog posts on tumblr, and dozens of photos on instagram, that i’ve hit the heart button on?

something needs to happen with this content.

i didn’t “like” things because i wanted to make someone else feel good, i did it because at that moment i sincerely felt attached to that piece of content.

somewhere, on each site, it’s all been archived.

something should be done with all that content, but i really have no idea what to do with it. 

i would love hear people’s thoughts and ideas on this matter.