smart devices

Hi dear readers, long time no post...

Today I was listening to NHPR "Here & Now" and an article by Robin Young about the Super Bowl LIV commercial for the Google Voice Assistant.  An elder man was asking "Hey Google" to help him remember stuff about his wife Loretta.  "Hey Google, remember Loretta hated my mustache."

I think one point of this news article was the question: are we letting Google (and other platforms) have too much of our personal information?  But whether it's talking to our computer aided devices or typing into them directly, so much of our quirks and secrets are already out there.   I remember searching online for patterns to make cloth diapers, for my soon-to-be grandchild. For months and months after that I was plagued with advertisements for diapers.

However my thoughts ran to a different question.

As my Mother's dementia grew she would purchase the same items over and over.  Link  She had eight bottles of molasses in her pantry. She would send the same birthday gifts to her granddaughters over and over. She would buy a birthday card every time she was in a store for whomever had the next birthday, her birthday card collection was huge.  She was using computers for email and creating documents, but she never got into browsing the web, or shopping there.

In my dementia caregivers support group I heard of people with dementia who got quite out of hand with the HomeShoppingNetwork. Watching tv and purchasing another set of pots and pans for their daughter-in-law, because you know she would love new pots. Or purchasing another big cozy bathrobe because mine is old and ratty and this one looks so soft.

We have all heard the story about the parrot that was ordering treats from Amazon through a voice activated assistant. "Hey Siri - Polly wants more crackers."

 I already have become use to just snapping off an order to Amazon for that big bag of cat food I can't purchase locally. It's all so convenient.

So my question is: as most of us are now quite use to using our highly connected computer aided devices for everything, how will those habits help or hurt us when dementia creeps in?

"Hey refrigerator, purchase OJ."  "Purchase OJ"  "Purchase OJ" "Purchase OJ."

"Hey thermostat, turn the heat up.  Turn the heat up. Turn the heat up." When she really is sick with a fever and needs help.

"Hey Siri call the police I can't get up."

"Hey Alexa call the police there is a strange man in my house" who is really just his own reflection in a mirror.