Are We Socially Ready For Wearable Computing? 214
An anonymous reader writes "Smart watches have arrived, and Google Glass is on its way. As early-adopters start to gain some experience with these devices, they're learning some interesting lessons about how wearable computing affects our behavior differently from even smartphones and tablets. Vint Cerf says, 'Our social conventions have not kept up with the technology.' Right now, it's considered impolite to talk on your cellphone while checking out at the grocery store, or to ignore a face-to-face conversation in favor of texting somebody. But 20 years ago, those actions weren't even on our social radar. Wearable devices create some obvious social problems, like the aversion to Glass's ever-present camera. But there are subtler ones, as well, for which we'll need to develop another set of social norms. A Pebble smart watch user gave an example: 'People thought I was being rude and checking the time constantly when I was really monitoring incoming messages. It sent the wrong signal.' The article continues, 'Therein lies the wearables conundrum. You can put a phone away and choose not to use it. You can turn to it with permission if you're so inclined. Wearables provide no opportunity for pause, as their interruptions tend to be fairly continuous, and the interaction is more physical (an averted glance or a vibration directly on your arm). It's nearly impossible to train yourself to avoid the reflex-like response of interacting. By comparison, a cell phone is away (in your pocket, on a table) and has to be reached for.'"
Duh! (Score:5, Insightful)
A Pebble smart watch user gave an example: 'People thought I was being rude and checking the time constantly when I was really monitoring incoming messages. It sent the wrong signal.'
I've got news for you. You're not sending a good signal when you check your phone for text messages during a conversation either. In either case you're indirectly but very clearly saying to the person standing in front of you that anything, including the time of day, a text message, or a facebook update is more important/interesting than what you are saying to me right now.
we've had wearable communication devices for years (Score:5, Insightful)
they're called pagers. I know now one but drug dealers and doctors wear them anymore, but they do exist.
I wear a pager for work and frequently have to wear it when out in public. I can turn the alert from audible to vibrate when I am in public. Most relevant to the issue at hand, it took me 1-2 years after I got my first pager to train myself to not automatically look at the pager as soon as a message/phone number came in.
In short, you CAN train yourself to not look instantly once you get it through your head that you are not expecting an urgent/emergency alert.
Similarly, hospitals are environments where, because of the ubiquity of wearable communication devices (ie pagers) it has become socially acceptable to read incoming messages almost anytime.
My conclusion is that these two forces will apply outside of the hospital/drug deal: people will learn to resist looking instantly at their watch or other wearable device unless they really are expecting something urgent and bystanders (many of whom will have wearables of their own) will grow to accept more frequent checking of such devices in the correct context.
Re:For me, it's all about invisibility... (Score:5, Insightful)
So lemme see if I get this: you want to be able to send and receive text messages while interacting with others, but you don't want them to know you're doing it so they won't think you're some sort of a-hole? And you think that the person you're interacting with won't notice you staring at your watch? And you think they won't notice that it's big, clunky, and has text displayed on it, sort like, oh, I don't know, a phone?
Re:Duh! (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah yes but he was sending the wrong rude message, it was "I'm so bored listening to you it seems time is standing still and I keep checking my watch praying this will soon be over" instead of the "I'm far too busy and important to devote all my attention and energy to interacting with you, so I'll casually show it by doing other things at the same time" rude.
Re: The wrong signal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't worry- the problem will solve itself. Keep checking your phone/smart watch for messages while conversing with others and before long you won't have to put up with people in "your personal space" any more.
If it gets common we will adapt (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember someone telling me once, he was one of the very first people who got a earplug/microphone for his cell phone and even cell phones were fairly rare. So he was apparently talking straight into thin air to someone who wasn't there, holding a conversation with them. Unless they spotted the earpiece and realized what it was, people thought he was certifiably insane. Today nobody would blink twice at that.
Who would want it? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are scientists and engineers pushing this idea of wearable computing because it seems cool. What we need isn't the opinion of scientists and engineers, we need to focus on philosophy. Adjust society for computer? Bah, what a load of hogwash. Adjust computing for society! Stop thinking like a computer engineer and start thinking like a human being
Re:Duh! (Score:1, Insightful)
Ah yes but he was sending the wrong rude message, it was "I'm so bored listening to you it seems time is standing still and I keep checking my watch praying this will soon be over" instead of the "I'm far too busy and important to devote all my attention and energy to interacting with you, so I'll casually show it by doing other things at the same time" rude.
Is it rude when you actually do have things going on that really are more important than some small-talk the person in front of you keeps making? Should I prioritize the guy's views of a football team over an e-mail from my wife concerning our family? Should my boss be less important than the guy in front of me and his views of football and gadgets?
I guess Im being rude now by asking a reasonable question.
Re:Too fragile for the wrist. (Score:4, Insightful)
Lots of people have expensive watches (some of them very expensive) and most of them seem to have no problem keeping them intact. (However, in your case, maybe a watch is not a good idea.)
A wrist watch is much more convenient than digging into your pocket to check the time, messages, etc. So just as wrist watches superseded pocket watches, smart watches will supersede pocket phones.
Google Glass should be outlawed. (Score:1, Insightful)
I will give a person one chance to take them off and put them away around me. If it is a public place that I spend money, I will be polite and ask, "Please put that camera away.", if they refuse, I will go straight to the business owner, tell that that I am leaving and will no longer spend my money in their establishment as long as they allow those things, and leave. If it is in my home, they get the one chance and if they refuse, they will be unceremoniously ejected, if they argue the point, they get my fist right into their google glasses and then they will be thrown ( literately ) out my door and off of my property.
As to the rest, if someone does not have social skills to know that constantly twiddling with their latest toy while in a conversation is just plain fucking RUDE I will make them aware of that and then leave.
Re:Duh! (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess Im being rude now by asking a reasonable question.
No, you're being rude by wasting people's time by pretending to ask a reasonable question while actually just being a sanctimonious ass.
Re:Duh! (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it rude when you actually do have things going on that really are more important than some small-talk the person in front of you keeps making? Should I prioritize the guy's views of a football team over an e-mail from my wife concerning our family? Should my boss be less important than the guy in front of me and his views of football and gadgets?
Yes, yes and yes.
If you don't want to talk with someone, break off the conversation with them. Do not engage in other activities whilst you are talking to them.
Saying the words "Excuse me, please, I need to check this" is apparently an epic, impossible feat that only the greatest of men can accomplish.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Duh! (Score:5, Insightful)
Should I prioritize the guy's views of a football team over an e-mail from my wife concerning our family?
If your wife is sending you urgent e-mails about your family that you need to deal with right now and not in ten minutes, maybe that's the problem? If it's urgent you call. Twice if need be, to let you know voice mail is not quick enough. If your excuse for checking your email every time a message pops in is that it might possibly be urgent, it's a bloody poor one. Not to mention you'll probably spend most of your life checking email, but that's not anyone else's problem.
Re:Google Glass should be outlawed. (Score:4, Insightful)
I love the way you go from literally punching your houseguests in the face to complaining about people who lack social skills.
Re:NO !! (Score:2, Insightful)
Shamelessly stolen from, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_(film) [wikiquote.org]
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should"
Re:Google Glass should be outlawed. (Score:3, Insightful)
I for one have no problem with you augmenting your eyes, ears and memory. I do have a bit of a problem with Google sharing your augmentations.
Honestly, I would have no problem with a wearable, even always-on camera. It's the Google's panopticon bit I have reservations with.
Article asks a stupid question (Score:4, Insightful)
We're never socially ready for ANYTHING new. The process of building social norms around something can't start until after that thing is introduced. The implication, then (often made explicit by hand-wringers calling themselves "ethicists" or some such thing) that we should stop the thing until we ARE "socially ready" for is equivalent to pure conservativism -- stopping everything new.
Mu (Score:5, Insightful)
frankly, I think this is a meaningless question. What does "Socially ready" even mean? Society does not "prepare" for change. Change happens and then society adapts. Or more accurately, change happens, some people adapt, and children grow up knowing a new society that never didn't have that change and can't conceive of a world that didn't have it.... then they grow up to ask whether society is ready for the next change, which their children will grow up familiar with, and who will think their parents were silly, crazy, and overly paranoid for doubting.