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Screen-BasedINSPIRATION & SOLUTIONS

—P R E P A R E D B Y

6C H A P T E R

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The popularity of screen culture is often called out as an ailment of our society. While some content may be triggering and can be a source of negative feelings about the world or oneself, it’s also no surprise that people look to their screens for self-care inspiration, products, and solutions.

In this chapter, we take a closer look at some of the self-care services available to people online. We also zoom in on social media influencers and some of the dynamics that have made them wildly popular.

Screen-Based Inspiration & Solutions

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Self-Care InfluencersLee Tilghman, the recipe developer and blogger behind the popular blog and Instagram feed Lee From America, is one of those people who makes self-care and a healthy lifestyle look accessible and genuinely fun.

She is a poster child for what conscious cooking and exercise can do for people: it can make them glow, feel more energetic, and happier.

This type of blogging marks an exciting shift away from bloggers and influencers sharing inaccessible experiences and toward approachable content that “normal” people can find value in or try themselves.

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Daphne Javitch, who has the blog Doing Well, is another successful self-care influencer.

After facing health challenges, Javitch built out an online nutritional and lifestyle guide, where she shares what she’s learned about using food and wellness to heal.

Javitch’s Instagram feed is full of ideas around how to listen to your own body and the power of doing just small things every day to make significant changes.

The images Daphne uses are fun, relatable, and always accompanied by a caption that gets you to think introspectively, or by tips that you can put into place within your own life.

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Apps: A Force of Good & BadThrough social media, we often compare our lives to the perfection we see on the internet.

While photo-based apps like Instagram are great for self-expression and self-identity, they are also associated with high levels of anxiety, depression, bullying, and fear of missing out (FOMO).

With the continued expansion of our reliance on technology, perhaps it’s not entirely surprising that there’s been a mini boom in the self-care apps and online services over the past couple of years.

These self-care apps want to turn smartphones into a force of good that’s less about likes and filters and more about individuals and their actual happiness.

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Through the range of self-care apps available in app stores, the contours of the self-care space and its reach are beginning to emerge.

An inventory of popular self-care-related apps reveals four higher-level themes:

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Brain Health: Services for increased cognition and overall well-being of the brain

Food & Conscious Eating: Services to aid discovery and knowledge about food

Emotional Health: Services with a clinical bent toward addressing specific emotional challenges

Sleep Enhancement: Services to assist with sleep and to minimize distractions

Over the following pages, we take a closer look at some of the services offered that address these themes.

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Services to Improve Brain HealthWhether it’s to focus at work, do better at school, or stay sharp, there is a variety of reasons for wanting to boost one’s brain health in the service of self-care.

According to the professor and vice chair at Emory University’s Department of Psychiatry—Nadine Kaslow, PhD—devices like apps can help promote mental health through participation in activities designed to reduce symptoms and improve psychological functioning.

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Neuroscience Workouts: Lumosity

With this app, you can give your brain a workout, helping improve your memory and problem-solving skills through short, fun games developed by neuroscientists.

The app gives access to more than forty games on the Web, or via a mobile device, and keeps track of how the user’s performance improves over time.

While this service is app based, it’s not hard to imagine the product development opportunities it may inspire. From physical games to daily rituals (e.g., the New York Times crossword puzzle), what if packaging and consumer-facing messaging supported brain health and product compliance?

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Adaptive Learning: Cerevrum

A related service that works to enhance brain health is Cerevrum, the world’s first virtual reality brain training game that improves cognitive abilities.

By utilizing the immersive power of virtual reality and augmented reality through artificial intelligence, Cerevrum has developed a new approach to learning. Set in a world of powerful spirits, players challenge their brains (memory, perceptual speed, multitasking, executive function, and attention) with different games to win the favor of the gods.

Data-driven machine learning characterizes each learner’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, adaptively adjusting difficulty in real time. What if a brain-boosting product like MCT (medium-chain triglycerides) oil could do the same?

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Emotional HealthMeditation is becoming a popular method to manage emotional and mental health, as well as a way to boost performance.

Estimated to be a $1.1 billion industry in the US by market research firm IBISWorld, private or group meditation and mindfulness training makes up 7.4% of the $15.1 billion alternative-care market in the US.

Adding to this, ClassPass (the massively popular service that offers users access to thousands of classes in their local areas) recently reported that the number of their users taking meditation, restorative, or recovery classes grew 16% during 2017, making it their fastest-growing fitness trend.

SOURCE: https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-trends/market-research-reports/healthcare-social-assistance/ambulatory-health-care-services/alternative-healthcare-providers.html

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An Ecosystem of Products: Calm

For many people, ten to fifteen minutes of meditation has become a part of their daily routines. Guided meditation apps like Calm offer programs to help calm the brain, increase sleep, and improve concentration.

A massively popular meditation app, and Apple’s choice for iPhone app of the year for 2017, Calm has amassed more than 14 million downloads and 40,000 new users daily.

Beyond the app, Calm is also behind the book Calm the Mind, Change the World, along with a new $29.99 sleep mist (meant to be sprayed on a pillow to aid sleep) used in conjunction with a bedtime story from the app.

In addition to its meditation and sleep services, Calm recently launched its series of Calm Masterclass—successfully demonstrating how an app can expand its touchpoints while forging deeper and more meaningful connections with consumers.

There are classes by:

» Dr Alex Pang, who shares how to avoid burnout and use rest skillfully to get more done by working less.

» Psychologist Adam Alter, who explores questions about social media addiction and shares practical steps for managing the rise of social media and screen addiction in our lives.

» Dr Judson Brewer, the director of research for the Center for Mindfulness, teaches on mindfulness training for breaking the cycle of addiction.

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Focus on ShineShine sends free daily text messages Monday through Friday with motivational quotes, positive affirmations, research-backed articles, and actions you can take to start the morning off right.

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The top five most engaging topics for Shine users revolve around living their best lives:

» CONFIDENCE: The number one issue that resonates with Shine users is how they can boost their daily confidence, especially at work.

» BEING PRESENT: Staying in the here and now and not taking what we have for granted.

» POSITIVITY: Nixing the negative talk that leads to self-doubt is essential for the app’s users.

» REMAINING PASSIONATE: In a do-it-all world, exhaustion and decision fatigue are something Shine sees women across the board struggling with.

» BODY IMAGE: Learning to love what we see in the mirror and recognizing that a tiny number of women fit the supermodel body type has not only resonated with female users; it has been one of the most engaged topics for male users too.

These topics point toward the pain points some consumers are dealing with in their day-to-day lives, giving proactive brands opportunities to make a meaningful difference.

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Services That Raise Awareness Around Food & Conscious EatingThere are some great online resources focused on food education and helping people understand foods so that they, in turn, can make choices that align with their self-care goals.

According to Sarah Koszyk, a San Francisco sports nutritionist, incorporating a food app into one’s food plan can be useful, regardless of goals. “It’s a convenient way to build awareness about what you’re eating and allows you to make smarter decisions so that you can reach your goals in a measurable way,” she says.

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Personalized Food Recommendations: Day Two

There’s a growing understanding of the importance of a healthy gut biome in the cultural zeitgeist, and this online service helps to provide clarity on it.

Day Two studies its users’ gut microbiome and translates its findings into personalized nutrition and actionable insights that allow users to live healthier lives and maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Here’s how it works: Users sign up for the service and submit a stool sample. Day Two’s lab sequences the DNA of the gut biome and produces a unique nutrition profile. A nutritionist consults with users, walks them through their results, and supports with meal planning.

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Convenient On-the-Go Assistance: Fooducate

Take this app with you to the grocery store, scan in barcodes, and find out how your favorite foods rate for healthiness.

The app assigns each food a letter grade, from A to D, based on its ingredients, nutritional value, sweeteners, additives, preservatives, and more. Users can also receive healthy food recommendations based on what they’ve scanned.

As self-care seekers gain food knowledge, the criteria by which they evaluate foods will become a vital form of input for product development.

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Services to Enhance SleepFinally, we take a look at a few services that promise a better night’s sleep.

Sleep is a hot topic within self-care. From Arianna Huffington promoting the benefits of sleep to the direct-to-consumer mattress company Casper, we see a broad range of “clean sleep” products gaining traction. Here, we take a look at two of the most interesting sleep-related apps.

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Professional Services 24/7: Amwell

This online consultation platform leverages the power of telemedicine and offers access to a range of independent sleep therapists and sleep medicine physicians from the convenience of a desktop or smartphone.

Providers set their price, typically ranging from $59 to $99, which is approximately $94 below an in-clinic visit.

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Self-Treatment: Acupressure

Locating and massaging pressure points can help release tension, relieve headaches, and, ultimately, promote better sleep.

This ingenious app provides simples guides that enable you to give yourself acupressure. The app showcases more than ninety acupressure point combinations, with illustrated instructions, to use for various self-care purposes.

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Credits

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The Future of

SELF-CAREKnow What’s Next, Now.Ebco is an Austin-based trend and insight consulting firm that serves as the go-to resource for trends that inspire unexpected new products, technologies, business models and categories. We have clients across most major industries, including the largest CPG, food and beverage, and personal care brands from around the world.

Our clients view us a partner in bringing customized, proprietary trend inputs to their initiatives. The goal is this insight leads to actionable ideas.

C O N T A C T U S erin@theebco.com

@ E B C O T R E N D S

W E B S I T E TheEbco.com