"The Awkwardness Of Wearable Tech In The Workplace"

It has all happened to us. You are in a meeting and as you are presenting you can see it starting to happen, they are lifting their hand, they bring it up to their face and it happens. They touch their Apple iWatch and check that alert. Signalled by the buzz and perhaps a tone, the Apple iWatch is doing what it does best in a meeting, interrupting.

Now call me old fashioned and do not judge me but I just cannot bring myself to wear a smartwatch............yet. It is nothing against the technology; I simply just love what my heavy and clunky automatic delivers. Old time charm and engineering excellence to remind me that not everything has to be circuit boards and microchips to achieve a task as simple as telling the time.

However, just as the arrival of the digital calculator showed the slide rule its days were numbered, I am beginning to understand it will not be long before the wearable technology of smart watches become a necessity. That valuable real estate on your wrist will be required for wearable tech. Right now, I am struggling to find one person who says it is a necessity but there is no shortage of users believing it will have a place in our future day-to-day tasks and have the upper hand. Pun intended.

Having this technology literally at hand at all times has it migrating into the lives of those who do not necessarily appreciate it as much as those actively adopting it. I regularly see avid users checking their notifications on their smart watch and find myself thinking how distracting it is to me, also to those presenting.

There was a time in the past when a check of the watch was either you needed to be somewhere else or you would rather be somewhere else.

A social cue, which was synonymous with “How’s the weather there?” signalling the conversation is ending. Then we progressed to the stage that a check of the mobile phone could mean the same thing but for even more insult, the user preferred to check their Instagram than provide you their undivided attention. I am highly confident that there have been many a lost opportunity because a social media check-in appeared more important. By this I mean, the presenter in the meeting just downgraded you to “Not Interested” and moved to your competition with their great offer.

Now with the ever-expanding range of wearables currently available and launching, we need to change and adapt our culture of acceptance. A wearable tech device is for not only efficiency purposes but also a show of keeping up with the latest technology. Reassuring themselves and others around that they are open to being connected and will be available for immediate response.

So how does the smartwatch or wearables benefit us over say a mobile phone?

From what I have seen by those using them they are really an effective tool best thought of as a summary device. I have various social platforms as well as messaging services that I use to communicate directly and indirectly with those in my industry. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Line, WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook and Facebook Messenger. What the smart watch does is show the messages or notifications where you can then choose to dismiss, offer a quick reply or for those alerts needing more attention pick up the phone and offer a more detailed reply. 

At the beginning of this article, I labelled the smart watch as a distraction. I am confidently aware that for those wearing the watch it is a reduction of distractions. Taking care of mounting emails, alerts and messages on the fly eases the anxiety they cause. With this reduction of anxiety, your attendee’s focus is much higher.

Will you see me at the apple store sizing up a Series 5, Titanium case and finish with sport loop iWatch? I do not know what you are talking about………………

Note: Apple iWatch has purely been mentioned as an example and no affiliation with apple, apple products or apple as a whole was entered into.