Life Enhancing Tech for Seniors
Seniors alive today have been witness to one of the most exciting eras of rapid technological advancement and invention in all of human history. And with seniors today living longer than previous generations, along with having far more leisure time to spend with friends, family, on hobbies or traveling to new destinations, it’s a good time to be older. But aging comes with many challenges and difficulties as well. While some amount of physical and mental decline is inevitable, leading to a loss of spring in our step, our twilight years can be just as, if not even more, enjoyable than our younger days.
And to that end, many different technology companies have all come out with all manner of devices, phone or tablet applications, and programs that can help us enjoy aging to the fullest. Many of these weren’t considered possible or even thought of as few as ten years ago, so it’s interesting and wonderful to imagine what might be coming up in the near future.
- Device locators: Losing one’s keys, wallet, phone, or any other small, yet vital, item is a hassle, and one that is frankly not exclusive to seniors. Fortunately, many tech companies have developed clever solutions for this problem that take a number of forms. Tile is a company that has developed small, bluetooth enabled GPS tags that can be placed on keychains, inserted into wallets, or attached to any other necessary item, allowing you to use your phone or another tag to find them, either by showing you the location on your phone, or by emitting a tone. And they’re not the only one, Apple has developed something similar to work with their iPhones, to name one.
- Health trackers: Getting our recommended levels of activity or proper amounts of sleep isn’t always easy, especially once the effects of aging make it harder to keep active or maintain a regular sleep schedule. But these days there are many different brands of wearable devices that take the unobtrusive form of a wristwatch that can provide us with many different health metrics. Being worn on your wrist, they can track your heart rate over the day, as well as using vibration to determine your activity level and steps walked, helping to ensure that each day you get the recommended level of physical activity for optimum health. They’re also designed to be worn as you sleep, recording how much tossing and turning you do throughout the night, as well as tracking how often you wake.
- Food delivery: Apps like GrubHub, UberEats, and DoorDash have expanded the food delivery paradigm beyond simply pizza and Chinese food. By pairing with not only chains, but also local restaurants, many of your favorite dishes from even your favorite local neighborhood haunts can be brought right up to your door. For many seniors with mobility issues or loss of ability to drive, this can be a dream come true, allowing them to enjoy their favorite restaurant meals in their comfort of their own home.