It’s no secret that smartphones changed the world in many ways some good and others bad. Chances are we all understand how they’ve changed our lives for the better. As for how they’ve affected our lives negatively, there’s now a way to offset that if you do it right.
The biggest issue with smartphones is that they can ruin our social lives. Just take a trip to a restaurant and you’ll see at least one family or couple that spends all their time glued to the small display of their phone. As a tech lover myself I have to admit it’s pathetic when that happens, yet sometimes there’s no avoiding it. I’m guilty of such a thing too. My significant other and I often sit on the couch at home with the TV on, not paying attention, glued to our phones or tablet instead.
Top Five Ways Smartwatches Make You More Polite
A smartwatch allows you to view notifications remotely, which means you can leave the phone in your pocket, or at rest nearby. It seems a bit silly to advocate more tech as the answer, but in this case it actually is. Most people suffer from an addiction brought on by the real-time connection support of smartphones and tablets. If you receive an email, text or call you’re more likely to interact with the device. You can view this information remotely on a smartwatch and then take the appropriate action which is what helps alleviate the problem.
Of course, some may argue these things wouldn’t be an issue to begin with if you just stayed off your smartphone. It’s a valid argument, yet sometimes it is absolutely necessary to use a phone. That’s really the point of this article, to highlight the times when a smartwatch will keep you on the straight and narrow.
Here, are the top five ways smartwatches make you more polite, when used properly.
Alerts Remain Minimal
Because most smartwatches pair with a smartphone to deliver alerts in realtime you don’t have to worry about checking your phone so much. Instead, while you’re waiting for that important email or text message you can glance quickly at your wrist when something arrives. Of course, if you’re around others and all you’re doing is staring down at your watch that’s going to defeat the purpose.
For the most part, you don’t have to worry about monitoring data on your smartphone because it will be delivered to your watch. In that respect, smartwatches help minimize the importance of notifications and alerts.
While wearing a watch you really can give priority to other – more important – activities, like socializing with friends and family, or crossing a busy street.
You Can Silence Your Phone
This actually goes along with the point above, but it’s still important enough to get its own section. Finally, you can silence your phone without worrying about missing important messages or alerts. While you’re doing things like participating in a big office meeting, watching a film in the theaters or having family dinner – you can set your phone on silent and direct the notifications to your watch. It makes sense that you would also lower the volume on the watch so you don’t disturb others, but because the device is on your wrist you can monitor it much easier. This eliminates the need to pull out your smartphone every few minutes, or turn on a bright display – something that would make more than a few fellow movie-goers upset.
How does this make you more polite? Well, when used efficiently it allows you to avoid interrupting others with loud ringtones and alerts.
You Can Control Your Phone Remotely
If you’re streaming music from your smartphone or you get a call while you’re walking down the street you won’t have to stop and focus on your phone, provided it’s paired with your smartwatch. Instead, you can interact with your phone remotely through the watch. You can do things like dismiss calls, answer them, reply to text messages or even skip tracks right from the device on your wrist. Since most watches also offer hands-free operation, like voice dictation support, you can usually continue doing whatever it is you’re doing while interacting with your phone.
This is exactly why Siri and Google Now are so popular. People can talk to their phone using voice commands, often remotely, and it will perform the necessary action. Smartwatches take that one step further by giving you a bit more control, from a remarkably convenient place – your wrist.
Your Attention and Focus Remains Free
As most of the other points on this list have stated, smartwatches allow you to keep your attention and focus elsewhere. A smartphone usually requires you to direct all of your attention to the display, controls or other mechanics. With a smartwatch, on the other hand, interaction is minimal so you can remain focused on tasks and events happening in front of you. This allows you to do things like watch where you’re going while you’re walking, listen to others when they are talking – instead of ignoring them to read – and much more. This may seem a bit shallow, but when you look at the social impact of smartphones it’s really not.
Just take a look at all the campaigns against texting while driving. These two activities when mixed together are extremely dangerous, but it doesn’t stop there. There are plenty of other activities that are bad to do at the same time you’re busy fiddling with a smartphone. A smartwatch will allow you to remain focused on the world around you, instead of a bright LCD or retina display. That being said, please don’t think we’re suggesting you use a smartwatch while you’re driving instead of a smartphone – the idea is to stay off the device in question and rely on it less.
Fewer [Forced] Kodak Moments
Most smartwatch cameras are pretty low quality, especially when compared to smartphones. That being said, they still exist for the times when you absolutely need to capture that special moment. You’ll probably use the camera a lot less, but that’s okay, it’s more polite.
How many times have you been somewhere when someone stopped to take a selfie right in front of you? In certain situations this is excusable, but not when they do it hundreds of times throughout their day. To make matters worse, a lot of people accidentally end up in a stranger’s pic who otherwise don’t want their picture taken and uploaded to a social network. I know, it’s hard to imagine a world where people wouldn’t want to be plastered all over the internet – but there are plenty of people like that still out there. I don’t blame them either, privacy is still important.
Because you can’t just snap a photo of yourself or your surroundings with a watch as easily as you can with your smartphone, you’re less inclined to do so. Yes, that definitely makes you more polite.
Can You Think of Anything Else?
Can you think of some other ways that smartwatches help make you more polite? Obviously if people use them heavily like most do with their smartphones, nothing will change. We, however, are trying to promote the opposite scenario where people are more polite, caring and socially active. If you were to make your own list of top five ways smartwatches make you more polite, what would you include?