It’s really early days for the Apple Watch, so who knows whether it’ll catch on or not.
My guess is that it probably will. The Apple Watch allows you to interact with your iPhone less by creating a bottleneck that gives you brief easy to comprehend info on your wrist, plus the time of course.
People using the Apple Watch won’t be pulling out their phones very often like they do now. At least that’s how I understand Apple’s pitch. To me it sounds like a shorter leash, but a cooler leash maybe.
We’re being connected more and more. I love the internet and some aspects of cell phones but I don’t want to be connected all the time (that I’d have a watch on at least).
While I was thinking about the Apple Watch’s implications I happened to read something I wish I’d written. I saw it at McSweeny’s. Niree Noel wrote it and called it “Are you working in a Start-up or are you in jail?” Check it out:
Do you need security clearance to enter and exit the facility?
Are you surrounded by windows that don’t open?
Are you dressed the same as everyone else? Using the same stuff as everyone else? At about the same time?
Regardless of compliance, are you immediately made part of a specific tribe full of others like you? Say, Team BackEnd or Team Marketing, Team West Coast or Team Least Coast. Is it awkward or even dangerous if you have to interact with people from other tribes?
Do you keep quiet all day, only to socialize for a few minutes around 9 am, noon, and 6 pm, coincidentally when the food magically appears?
Are you surrounded by people who cultivate odd hobbies like unicycling?
At 3 pm every day, is there a brief respite from the routine, a complete exodus for a few moments of outside time?
Is there a dedicated space for a gym that doubles as a dedicated space for crafts that triples as a dedicated space for weekly book club that quadruples as a dedicated space for formulaic birthday celebrations?
Do you never leave? Of your own volition?
If you get an Apple Watch, how often do you think you’ll wear it? More than you think you will, and your leash will have just gotten shorter. If the world is telling you how you’re going to be treated, you’re in trouble.