We believe the power of Health Entertainment is all about fitting seamlessly into people’s lifestyles. In entertainment, game-play is a great way to find people doing something they love to do – because they have fun. But there’s no single channel of entertainment for everyone, so we’ve been exploring all kinds of ways to make fun things more healthy. We’ve recently been building on the old adage that "laughter really is the best medicine", and we came up with a concept called “Relatively Hilarious”.
We’ve all been there. Sitting at the family holiday dinner table with dad (or grandpa, or Uncle Bob), and hearing the same old, tired, story – with the same old, tired punch line. The thing is, those stories really are funny (at least, they were first time you heard them), and we’ll miss those stories when the storyteller is gone. Relatively Hilarious offers the chance for families and friends to save and share humor and stories.
Whether it’s at the table, at the game, in the pub, or on the street – the Relatively Hilarious platform connects people using the voices that they already know.
To set up an account with Relatively Hilarious, you’d call a number, and record a joke. Your phone number makes your account, and from there, it’s easy to share the joke with other phone numbers you know. By sending this “saved voicemail” to others, you build your own network. A supporting web site lets visitors listen and rate other jokes, manage their account, or set up one themselves. The social network you already have (friends, family) can use the platform in whatever way works best for them.
It would be great to see this same concept play into personal video messages – as soon as cell-phone video files start flying around the Internet. We think Relatively Hilarious would appeal to both young and old family members, and could bring them all closer together. If we can achieve that, then we’d ultimately make people happier and more socially connected as they share a laugh. We know that laughter does make a difference in personal health, and when people feel connected to each other, they really are happier.
In order to bring this concept to reality, the technology needs to be built and technical possibilities need to become commercial realities. If you’ve got ideas that can help to make this happen, please share them with us. We’d like to hear what you think of this platform, and where you think it could go.
HOW IT COULD WORK:
The IVR Platform experience…
You’d call a 1-800 number, from any phone.
You’d assign yourself a four digit pin, and record a joke, story, or humor to share with someone you know.
You’d send the recording to them, or to multiple recipients, who become phone numbers in your quick-send list.
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The Website Platform experience…
You’d visit the website, and register using your phone number and your self-assigned pin.
With your account active, you would review other jokes, rate them, put other jokes in your favorites, modify your quick-list of friends, and more.
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The vision of a mature Integrated Platform experience…
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
Recently a colleague complained to me that I’m not following him back on Twitter. Another one posted a comment to a Facebook application, offended that my wall was not accessible to her. And another one got annoyed when comments to my online status stayed unanswered for long periods of time, although there seemed to be plenty of activity on my profile.
Which made me think about the different uses people apply to their online social networks and tools – and their personal expectations.
In general, people don’t seem to realize, that most social technologies, including Twitter and Facebook, are asynchronous communication tools. That means, that they are meant to post information now that people pick up at a later point in time at their own discretion. Consequently, the builders of those tools have built in mechanisms and algorithms which – in an attempt to manage the communication load – often arbitrarily display the newest status updates, photos, news on the various ‘friends’ you follow; the newest ones first but in no particular order and without any particular ranking. Therefore, your profile may look active today when your updates are actually from a while ago. What makes matters worse is the fact, that your profile also displays replies, posts, comments by your friends – dependent on your preference settings. So, there may be recent activity on your profile although you haven’t logged in for weeks.
What we need to remember is that people use these tools in different ways, which is dependent on how they are able to access them throughout the day. For example, due to company security restrictions, I can only access most social media sites from my iPod touch during the day and from my home desktop at night. Consequently, I try to manage my Twitter stream by:
- only following people that talk about things of interest to me (which at this point does not include when they go to the shower or watch the sun rise) :)
- only posting information and links on Twitter that I find particularly intriguing from a professional and intellectual perspective
Consequently, I don’t prohibit anybody from following me but choose who to follow based on the above criteria. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, other people use Twitter in different ways which includes building an online reputation as connectors or distributors of any kind of information, measured by a ratio of followers to followees (called tweeciprocity on Twitter) or alike.
Sorry, guys, for virtually screwing up your cyber-reputation. I hope that the intellectual and informative value that my posts provide to you compensate for that. :)
But back to asynchronous communication tools, old-fashioned Email being one of them… They allow you to access and respond in a different-place/different-time manner and thus the expectation for somebody waiting for a response should adjust accordingly. Even though you may instantaneously see my post doesn’t create the need or ability for me to immediately respond; nor does it require me to respond at all. :)
In contrast, synchronous communication gives you instant feedback but requires you to also immediately respond. This direct feedback loop, however, helps to quickly overcome ambiguity, reach agreement, minimize time, and is, therefore, a much better way to arrive at mutual consent and to make decisions.
So, why not pick up the phone if you actually want to accomplish something?
Or, if the person you want to talk to is actually sitting in the cubicle across the aisle: Why not get up, walk over, and talk to him or her?
You might actually make a real friend …
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
As you may have read in my first post, I joined the bodybugg revolution about 6 weeks ago, and I am a huge fan of the real-time feedback that it provides. I think this is the reason that the program is working so well for me.
We live in a time where instant feedback is readily available in many industries and formats. We see constant Twitter streams and Facebook updates to see what our friends, colleagues, and acquaintances are up to and thinking about, and we get our news through RSS feeds that constantly push the latest and greatest information right to us…
…but where is the real-time feedback on my health? How am I supposed to figure out how the things I do today affect my body (both today and in the future)?
Enter the BodyBugg, which helps me see the impact of the foods I eat and the movements I make on a daily basis. This isn’t just a tool for weight loss. It also has programs for people who want to gain weight or maintain their current weight. It’s all about the balance of calories consumed vs. calories burned. If you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Want to gain weight? Eat and drink more calories than you burn (which is what I was doing before…although unintentionally).
It’s been about 6 weeks since I began the program, and I am still going strong. To date, I’ve lost 9 pounds, and am still vigilant about logging my food entries every single day (even though I must admit that I was a bit skeptical at first about the time commitment that it would take to do this). While logging food and drink is not mandatory, I think refusing to do so would cause you to miss out on one of the main benefits of the program: learning the tools you need to sustain a lifestyle change. I could go on for several paragraphs about this topic, so I will save that one for another post.
For now, I want to go back to the importance of real-time feedback on my own body and my own health. I can’t help but think if we really saw the dangerous effects of smoking that cigarette or eating that jelly doughnut every morning, we would stop doing those things (or at least stop doing them as often). Can you imagine the impact watching your lungs get darker with every drag or watching your arteries clog with every bite of that jelly doughnut?
I think visualizing the effects of what we do to our bodies is what it will take before some of us will actually get it. We know smoking and consistently eating fatty foods is bad for us, but we still do it every single day. Why? I would argue that since we don’t see the effects of these unhealthy behaviors today (or even tomorrow or next week), we are content to remain blissfully ignorant. “I’m 30 and I smoke a pack a day, but I’m not really affected besides the occasional coughing fit. So what if I get lung cancer at 65 – I’ll deal with it then.”
Thankfully, visualization doesn’t have to be as drastic as the blackened lung or the clogged artery (although it may take these types of scare tactics to finally convince some people). The bodybugg visually shows me my own personal teeter totter of how many more calories I need to burn to help offset my food intake on any given day – based upon that day’s food log. For now, this seems to be all the real-time feedback I need to help me stay on target with my weight loss goals. The real test will be to see if I continue to sustain my current habits and stick with the program over the long term…but again, that’s for another post.
Photo by: bardgabbard
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
Let me play master of the obvious and state what I’m sure you already know, too much stress kills. A little stress is a good thing and helps to keep us focused. But too much, and you’ve increased your risk for heart disease, cancer, and a host of other less than pleasant side effects of stress.
Unfortunately, in today’s fast paced world stress is harder than ever to avoid but I came across an idea I wanted to share. Sometimes all you need is a pleasant change of pace or something out of the ordinary to help provide a refreshed outlook. Last Wednesday I decided to try something fun and spontaneous so I went to our local center for the arts and waited in line for some deeply discounted “Rush Tickets”.
Several art councils and event locations offer discounted tickets for performances the day of the show. At the Kentucky Center for the Arts they have a program called “The Great Arts Rush of 2009” which uses the two hour window prior to the show to sell discounted tickets. It’s on a first come first serve basis while quantities last, so you may or may not get them but that’s part of the fun. I had never tried this before but was pleasantly surprised with $10 tickets about thirteen rows back on the floor for the “Pink Floyd Experience”. Hey, don’t judge me. It was a good show and if Pink Floyd songs can’t relax you then you’ve got issues. It also provided some really good people watching opportunities.
I did a little searching on the web and discovered several other performing arts centers offer these types of programs. You’ll have to check with the center in your area for the programs and rules, but its well worth the effort. One site (nytix.com) had several discounts for the New York City area performances. Next time I’m there, I’m going to try it and see what happens.
You need to remember to treat yourself to something different, every now and again. A live performance is a great way to reduce stress and put a smile on your face. That’s always good. If anyone has any other ideas they want to share please let me know in the comments below.
Photo by: Dave-F almost retired
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
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