Smartwatches and Slowing Time

Source 1

Smartwatches are everywhere. On this college campus, I see many students and teachers with smartwatches. In my hometown and out and about, I also see many people — adults and children — with smartwatches. They are literally everywhere.

In “Pressed for Time”, Judy Wajcman describes how the transformation of clocks into watches was related to increased time pressure (2). What kind of effect, if any, are smartwatches — advanced, multi-purpose watches — having on people and the time pressure they feel?

Adds for smartwatches emphasize their speed and many abilities, highlight the fact that you “never miss a thing” if you wear a smartwatch (see add below, 3), and show people immediately satisfying any need they have right away on the smartwatch (see two adds below,4).

Smartwatches further allow us to do everything at once and multitask more than before possible. Following the logic of Wajcman, this multitasking and the smartwatch itself may be slowing people down rather than speeding them up as it is marketed to do. While it may seem fast and convenient to lift a wrist rather than dig out a phone, the small screen may be a hassle. While switching from navigating to checking email to calling a friend to searching a question all while walking somewhere may seem like fast multitasking, switching tasks so quickly rather than dedicating set time to one thing may be slowing people down. These trends are seen in lots of technology — the mobile phone, email, and more (2). From adds and observation of people (and myself!) it is clear smartwatches may also fall into these trends. While they may seem fast and convenient, some technologies contribute to a time pressure rather than ease it.

Sources:

1. “Smartwatches: Overview and Android Wear App Development Possibilities.” AppFutura, AppFutura, 31 July 2014
2. Wajcman, Judy. Pressed for Time the Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism. The University of Chicago Press, 2015.
3. NokiaCatwalk. “Sony SmartWatch 2 for Android Smartphones — Commercial.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 Sept. 2013
4. michaelkors. “The Next Generation of Smartwatches | Michael Kors Access | :60.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Oct. 2017