All my life I have been told what to do. It started with my mother, then various teachers, sergeants, bosses, tax collectors, girlfriends, wives, and now… my iWatch.
Yes, my iWatch is now taking over and bossing me around. It tells me what to do… when to stand, when to exercise, what to eat, etc. If I don’t heed the commands, I am afraid of the consequences It is kind of creepy…
Every cloud has a silver lining and this coronavirus abomination strangely ushered a bright side. Its quick propagation and deadly consequences are stimulating innovation.
“Necessity is the mother of invention” has never been truer.
All tech companies worldwide are now working overtime to come up with an app to identify and curb the virus spread. My iWatch and my iPhone will soon enter the war against COVID-19. They will tell me for instance if I am in the proximity of an infected individual, and if so, what to do and where to go.
Some events are so catastrophic that they cannot be ignored and force old foes to cooperate. In WWII, unabashed capitalistic America agreed to fight on the side of its foe, the ever reviled Soviet Union. Today, similarly, tech giants have declared an armistice and pledged to cooperate fighting the common enemy.
Sometimes I have the feeling that these new smart gadgets treat you are like a child. They are packed with so many hidden features, that most of its owners probably don’t even know about them.
Kids and women seem to be the new authorities on the iWatch. The minute they got it, they tried (and mastered) every single feature. To me, it still is a watch, albeit a smart one. It tells me the time, the ambient temperature, and when I get some e-mail.
But if you dig a little (unfortunately I am averse to manual labor) you will find plenty of goodies. For instance, if you momentarily forget your passcode, the iWatch can unlock your Mac. Nice.
It will listen to and obey Siri’s commands. It will make calls and receive messages away from your phone. It will warn you about abnormal heart rates and detect accidental falls, etc.
The problem is that if you get used to all of this, (like smart-alecky kids do) you will eventually forget everything that took years to master. If you lose or misplace your iWatch, you will suddenly feel like a fish out of water. A little bit like relying too much on your car… and forgetting how to use your legs. Baaad!
But I like tech stuff… Fortunately, I am not (totally) addicted to it and could survive without it on a deserted island. My wife who has become a Tech Guru could not.
Alain