Technology and Life Reminders

We know life gets busy and we often forget important moments in life.

We can read books that help us reinforce lessons and ideas. But with our personal lives, it's more difficult to recall these significant points in our lives.

With technology, it's becoming easier to recall memories. Facebook lets you see your memories that happened years ago on its service. Google Photos Assistant lets you rediscover photos that were taken on the same day years ago. The "magic" of these reminders are they are completely organic. You don't have to do anything besides post or take pictures like you normally would. There is no effort on the users to take advantage of these features.

Of course, there can be less than happy memories that may be brought up. While those moments have influenced who we have become, we sometimes rather not be reminded of those times. That's where I think services will differentiate themselves.

The best services will learn precisely what their users prefer to see or not see. For example, a service may be able to determine whether to show a photo of you and an another person based on certain patterns. It could determine if you two were good friends, if you broke up on bad terms, or if it was a loved one that has passed away. The better services won't treat these various situations the same for every individual user either; some people enjoy reminiscing more than others and enjoy remember different sorts of memories.

It goes without saying, you'll have to use services and provide feedback/signals for the best experience. (Though the best services will have users do that without even noticing)