Technology Changed Not Just What We Do but also Who We Are

While no one would argue that technology had really improved our lives so much, I have to agree that it also shaped not just how we live our lives but also our personalities.

I personally can attest that I have been changed by technology. Before, when I'm not feeling good, I would look for my friends but now I would just post it in my wall.

Since the beginning of this year, I'm seeing more and more articles and videos about social experiments of not being connected in the virtual world. Come to think of it, I myself can't imagine my day without checking my email, facebook or twitter. But of course, that doesn't mean I don't wonder how it feels like to be able to do that.I admire those who can do it. I'm a self confessed SNS addict and I really find it hard to skip checking my online accounts everyday. Then again, sometimes, I reminisce the days when I don't have these accounts yet.

Even kids nowadays don't know the kind of life people used to have 20 years ago. They were born and are being raised in an environment where the definition of play is tantamount to Angry Birds.

Anyway, here are two videos related to what I'm talking about. The first one is related to an article I found in Yahoo! last January and the other one is a video I watched from TED earlier.

You have read this article but alone? / Jake Reilly / Jake Reilly's Amish Project / Sherry Turkle / Sherry Turkle: Connected / TED / Yahoo with the title TED. You can bookmark this page URL http://metroplexbbq.blogspot.com/2012/04/technology-changed-not-just-what-we-do.html. Thanks!

ToucHb: Hemoglobin Count Without the Needles

I was browsing over the TED site weeks ago when a video's title caught my attention . It is: "Myshkin Ingawale: A Blood Test Without Bleeding."

Interesting, right?

I thought, "Wow. Another medical breakthrough, thanks to technology." So, I watched the video.

For me, the motivation behind creating this apparatus is really admirable. While it's true that it will be produced for business, the reason that fueled Ingawale to not stop building it despite 32 times of failure, is his vision of eradicating anemia as a cause of death globally. Something that surprised me too.

Ingawale said he wants something that could be used by the village health workers to diagnose anemia. According to his video, he and the rest of his team thought that it should be something easy to carry around, simple and without needles. When he showed how the apparatus can be used it reminded me of a pulse oximeter, which is used to measure the oxygen saturation in our blood. ToucHb, on the other hand can show the hemoglobin count, the oxygen saturation and the heart rate. Both apparatuses work under the principle of photoplethysmography.

It's a general knowledge how technology have changed our lives yet once in a while I can't help but be awed.

Here's the TED video about it:

You have read this article blood without needles / measuring hemoglobin / Myshkin Ingawale / TED / ToucHb with the title TED. You can bookmark this page URL http://metroplexbbq.blogspot.com/2012/04/touchb-hemoglobin-count-without-needles.html. Thanks!