Smart Watches are DUMB

the Jetson predicted that by 2062 humans

would have flat screen TVs Robo vacuums

flying cars and smart watches well

welcome to the Future Baby half a

century early now the Jetson Smartwatch

could only do video chat so we're

actually doing better than predicted but

these RIS computers don't fulfill the

futuristic promises that we might have

hoped

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for now my own personal take here I

bought an Apple Watch series 7 back in

March because I have a heart condition

and for a long time I felt like a

SmartWatch with a heart rate monitor

would be a solid purchase for somebody

in my unique position while you might

notice that I am not currently wearing

one and that's because I sold it after 2

months of owning it the reasons for me

personally getting off of the Smartwatch

bandwagon will be discussed later but

let's just set the scene for why you

should also be getting off the bandwagon

believe it or not smart watches have

been around since the 1970s and those

ones were hilarious we're just going to

skip forward to about 2015 which is when

Apple dropped the Apple watch marking

the beginning of the Smartwatch era as

we know it today this fancy Gizmo was

perfectly suited to the ideal Apple

customer it was slick expensive and not

really necessary now when these things

launched it was a big deal it felt like

the iPhone launch a new category a new

frontier for the tech world that would

change the way that we communicate as a

species but it was predictably a let

down that baby will do everything but

tell you what time it is it doesn't tell

time no basically the biggest perk of

this thing was that you could get

notifications without needing to pull

the phone out of your pocket which yes I

know is a is a very stressful and

strenuous part of your everyday don't

put it in your pocket where you want me

put it anywhere not in your bucket the

Apple watch quickly became the

bestselling watch on the market

outpacing tycoons like Rolex and tagur

despite its ultimately questionable

reviews and functionality SmartWatches

are now one of the most popular wearable

products worldwide and are expected to

generate $45 billion USD this year now

modern Smartwatch technology has come

far enough that there can be an argument

made for the functionality of the

devices you no longer need to plug them

in to use the screen and they're a lot

sleeker than the wrist keyboards of the

past compared to the iPhone the Apple

watch does have some improved features

supposedly this is better for activity

and fitness tracking which I can kind of

confirm and it goes more places like

underwater sometimes it has some useful

features for health related situations

like people who are diabetics or people

who have heart conditions and finally it

can call 911 for you in an emergency

which is is pretty cool now I don't know

if there's anyone who truly just has an

Apple Watch on their wrist but a lot of

people are really into the idea of

having access to basic Communications

like texting or calling or GPS without

the distraction of the Doom scroll that

can happen when you're looking at your

phone but that's not really how these

watches are being used today for the

most part watches still need to be near

the companion iPhone to work the Apple

watch Ultra is the most suited to all

day use without needing an iPhone there

are lots of videos of people trying this

out for like an entire day with

relatively mixed reviews for some it

works pretty well for others there were

just a lot of issues with connectivity

GPS battery life and ultimately still

needed a bigger device to get things

done on and this is the first real

problem of the Smartwatch in a world of

iPads iPhones and MacBooks the

Smartwatch is fairly Limited in its uses

but a lot of people are still buying

them so why one quarter of Smartwatch

users say that main reason for buying a

smartwatch was for the health and

fitness benefits basically me now I

loved clo in my rings every day you know

monitoring all my fitness for about 3

weeks um and then I pretty quickly lost

my enthusiasm for the whole gamification

thing and just stopped using it and the

thing is that's just my opinion but it's

a lot of other people's experiences too

because the research agrees apparently

only about half of smart AR watch users

actually use the health tracking

technology available on the device

onethird of people using the fitness

trackers stop within 6 months and over

half of the users abandon them all

together people who use fitbits and

other fitness trackers are actually less

successful in meeting their health goals

or maintaining motivation after the

tracker is gone and finally the metrics

aren't even that reliable and see this

is the theme with the smart Smartwatch

promises in general there's so many

amazing things that it can technically

do but none of them do them well enough

to be a GameChanger I bought my Series 7

specifically because of its ECG feature

which is really accurate and a pretty

phenomenal technology that Apple has

developed basically use the pulse in

your finger and in your wrist to measure

your heart rate at a particular moment

while this feature has been proven to be

effective at measuring and capturing a

regular heart rhythms in other patience

it never worked for me basically you

need to find a place really stable where

you can put your arm on the table really

still and hold it for 30 seconds now in

that 30 seconds I was never able to get

a conclusive reading because you know I

was like running or something or jumping

around and and by the time I like found

a place to chill out put my arm and hold

it for 30 seconds it just either the

moment had passed or or the reading just

didn't come through through clearly

enough but here's the thing for the

millions of people with heart conditions

across the US and myself included it was

a health related reason to justify

buying an expensive watch we're talking

four digits sometimes here but apple is

the king of manufacturing problems and

then selling us the solutions do you

remember when they remov that headphone

jack at the same time that they released

airpods for the first time SmartWatches

are no different here no one needs a

smartwatch no one cared before caring

about it is a need I invented to sell

this kind of stuff but it seems like

everyone in their dog has one nowadays

Apple sneakily invented a whole new

product class that they could have

people replacing every eur2 with planned

obsolesence it's truly a great business

model terrible for the environment and

everyone else but a great business model

for them now to give you my very biased

perspective on this basically the best

case scenario for you buying Smartwatch

is you waste a bunch of money on a

device that you barely use but what's

the worst case scenario you might ask

well it's a lot more Insidious because

the thing is these are literally

trackers they are no doubt gathering

information about you and your life

where you go when you sleep how much you

exercise and more make no mistake this

data collection is not neutral and there

are fears that other health apps like

menstral cycle tracking could be used to

criminalize people for getting abortion

since roie Wade was overturned Nobody

Knows the extent to which these

companies are harvesting our personal

data or what they're doing with it never

mind the risk of hacking Etc because

this technology is changing so fast it's

basically impossible to know all of the

ways that it's impacting us we're going

to learn down the road that you know

people who have these fitness trackers

monitoring their everyday lives have

watery poops like that could just be it

like maybe we don't know this now but

like all these people having watery

poops are having them because they got

this wristwatch

monitoring their their blood flow or

something that's probably not a great

example we'll Workshop that one

regardless of the impacts the tech is

definitely reshaping our brains

literally changing our neurop Pathways

and while we don't know what the outcome

is going to be the effects that we're

seeing are already pretty black mirror

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here's my main concern with all this if

we're Outsourcing our self-awareness and

motivation to these SmartWatches we're

basically setting ourselves up to be

controlled by them take for an example

Phantom notifications yeah I can't be

the only one that sometimes feels like

my phone just buzzed in my pocket when

it didn't well the same thing is

happening on people's wrists with which

on its own makes sense and doesn't seem

too scary until you think about it in a

pavlovian way where we are basically

being conditioned to respond to a small

vibration telling us

something do I want open

okay Al

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sure what are you doing my mouth tastes

so bad all of a sudden in our Smart

Homes video we talked about the amount

of control that you give up when you

adopt a smart home system and that video

is also very depressing if you want to

go watch it after this one inoperable

locks hacked security systems lights

that won't turn on imagine that same

thing when you Outsource yourself

awareness and motivation to a little

thing on your wrist eventually you're

going to start relying on this to be

motivated to do anything cuz it's

already happening some Smartwatch users

have said that they have started to rely

on the watch to tell them things like

whether or not they slept well or were

they energized enough for a workout

instead of just like you know checking

in for a second and seeing how you feel

others have said that if they forget

their watch at home there's no point in

going to the gym that day I've literally

done that myself I have turned around on

a walk gone home just to get the watch

so that I could record those steps and

not miss out some psychologists have

noted how smart watches with their

ability to track things like sleep heart

rate and time spent on various

activities can help us understand our

inner motivations and needs which does

seem valid we are Outsourcing our

selfawareness to this device and relying

on it to tell us what we like and what

we don't like at the same time

technology use is known to wear down the

pleasure Center in your brain making it

harder and harder for you to feel

pleasure in the first place it's like

the energizing feeling that you get from

going on a run or jump into the ocean

versus the energizing feel that you get

when you chug an entire cup of coffee

WrestleMania Shar the bear with the oh

no ST stut it doesn't feel that far off

to imagine a future where Siri can

notice when you're feeling sad and make

a suggestion to cheer you up and maybe

sure that suggestion is to listen to

your favorite song or go on a run or

maybe it's something else like buying

something from a corporation that runs

your algorithm and yes this is really

sad and dark and and creepy but we're

not even at the creepiest part yet

Martin Cooper the father of the cell

phone and former head of Motorola

believes that cell phones are literally

going to become a part of our bodies way

back when his original Vision was a cell

phone that would be an extension of a

person and would be with that person at

all times and let's just do a quick fact

check here yes point for Martin because

I'm addicted to my phone but recently he

gave another prediction he said I kid

you not the cell phone is going to

become a part of you parts of the cell

phone will be embedded under your

skin yummy but he doesn't even stop

there you won't have to charge a cell

phone because your body is the perfect

charger I mean come on are we in the

horror movie right now see humans are

teetering on the parallel universe line

between having the world ruined and

relying on Tech as our savior or having

ruined the whole world and seeing Tech

as a part of that problem one of the

weirdest Parts though is that smarttech

Brands itself as both of these things at

once it's more Tech that will give you a

life of less Tech like there is a lot of

people who buy a smartwatch because they

don't want to look at their phon as much

and I can't be the only person that

thinks that that is kind of a crazy

justification right for some of us sure

absolutely the Smartwatch can be a very

functional tool but for the vast

majority it's either unnecessary not

actually good enough at doing its job or

a creepy tracking monitor thing that's

transmitting your daily movements to a

massive corporation like most Apple

products it's something we buy because

we want to be more productive want to be

healthier or cooler whatever but just

because Tech has got us into all these

messes it doesn't mean that Tech is the

thing that's going to get us out of them

as we get closer to this smarter Tech

world we are seeing a rise in the

opposite of dumb Tech take the light

phone their whole thing is that they

designed this product so that you use it

less it doesn't have social media a web

browser or apps it only phones and texts

and yes there is a headphone jack Mighty

is a modern MP3 player that can actually

sync with your Spotify and apple music

so that you can listen to stuff without

an internet connection or the threat of

any sort of curated playlist that

Spotify has decided to throw at you that

day and freewrite is a digital keyboard

that lets you type into a word processor

but without internet access like if a

typewriter and a laptop had a baby this

way you have the benefits of word

processing technology but with without

the distractions of the internet will

this be enough to offset the radically

increasing technological bend that we

seem to be on maybe not but it's good to

know that at least some of us want other

options and you might be able to get

them if you're looking for that if

you're interested in other tech-free or

Tech light solutions to these kinds of

situations or weird products in the

world that we should talk about we have

a Reddit page where we talk about other

things don't make it on this channel so

go and check us out over there and

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week okay smart watches