The other day while searching the iTunes app store I
discovered a trend you maybe wouldn't have expected to take off: apps that tell
you how soon you and your loved ones will likely die. Something I wasn’t sure
if I should look into considering how superstitious I already am. But I took a
slight risk and decided to look more into it.
As far as I can
tell, it started earlier this year with the website See Your Folks. If your parents are still
alive, See Your Folks predicts how many more times you’re likely to see them.
It makes its predictions using World Health Organization data combined with the
number of times you see them per year.
But that's just
your loved ones. Me, being a bit more self-centered than the usual person
wanted to see if there were any apps that would tell me the big question “When
will I die?”. It's a new watch currently being kickstarted. Tikker tells you
how many years, days, hours and minutes you likely have left in your life. Still
a bit scared of these strange new apps.
As I looked into
these more I realized, I have a soft spot in my heart for this kind of thing.
I'm a sucker for an old-fashioned appeal to death. I also like the promise that
they try to make - that we should keep thinking about death as a way to live
our lives better. Of course, the concept of these death clocks’ existence is
probably nearly as effective as owning one. If you put anything in front of
your face for long enough, you’ll learn to ignore it. Even the tick-tock of
your own march toward the grave.
The reason I think these apps appeal
so much to a person is because they are answering the one question no one has
really ever been able to answer. And of course with these apps comes a lot of speculation,
even myself wondering how they know, even with data backing it up, I’ll always question
it, and I think other people should too.
A rule I think people need to keep
in mind is to never let one app or any technology control how you live your
life. Because that can always become a very scary thing, and also, you want to
live your life, right? I mean, I know I do so I hope others the same.
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