It never fails. Every morning, as I meditate, my Apple watch vibrates on my wrist. I open one eye to see what it wants now. Text rolls across the screen “Your movement ring did not close yesterday. You can do better today!”
That’s an approximation, as I quickly move my hand over the watch face, thus darkening the screen. I don’t memorize the admonition. But the point remains: My watch likes to tell me what to do.
I have issues with my phone and laptop as well. Sometimes, they seem to have minds of their own.
When I bought the watch two years ago, I apparently thought it would be fun to receive news alerts from The Wall Street Journal and Huff Post. I set fitness goals. And I allowed the watch to tell me to stand every hour, and “breathe” periodically throughout the day.
What was I thinking?
Of course, I know I can change these settings. But I have learned through experience that that’s not always as easy as it sounds. For example, I recently realized I didn’t know how to silence my iPhone. I was at a conference, listening to the keynote speaker, when the phone beeped. I turned down the volume as far as it would go. But I could still hear the beep when a message or news alert came in.
I stuck the phone into my tote bag so I wouldn’t have to hear it and it wouldn’t disturb others.
Later, before the first workshop session started, I went into Settings to try to set the phone to vibrate, but the option wasn’t there. Unfortunately, I had not seen the need to silence my year-old phone until now, and this was a newer model than my previous phone, with a different silencing setup that I couldn’t immediately decipher. I didn’t have time to investigate. The session was beginning.
In between this workshop and the next, I went straight to Google. Aha. On the iPhone 7, there is an actual switch on the top left side that turns the ringer off.
I have been an Apple devotee for many years. I have always loved Apple products because they are easy for people like me, who don’t understand the tech behind technology, to use. Sometimes, however, I try to make things complicated. The answer to my dilemma had been right in front of my eyes!
Problems also arise with updates. Suddenly, after an update, the news alerts on my watch started featuring photographs. Previously, they had only contained text. This freaked me out. One day I was sitting quietly at home, absorbed in a mystery novel, when the face of Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared on my watch. Wow. Just wow.
The various noises my watch makes when messages, alerts and directives are delivered are now louder than before. This, I could not live with, so I took the time to figure out how to silence them.
Mostly, though, I am living with my devices in a love-hate relationship. I do enjoy my “movement minder” when I am actually moving. This is usually on the weekends. My goal is 30 minutes of exercise per day (at one go) and I am pleased when, at the end of a brisk walk, my watch beeps and proclaims “Goal achieved!” I like seeing that I’ve done 6,000 steps on a work day, when I had to be at several different locations. This is unusual, so I wallow in it.
I hate it when it reminds me, in so many words, that I spent way too much time at my desk the day before.
For that reason, I appreciate it when my watch reminds me to stand every hour. This is useful both at work, and if I am tucked into my reading chair at home, especially on a winter’s afternoon. It is less helpful when I’m at the movies. I also used to laugh when it would tell me to stand while I was in the car, as driver or passenger. However, my iPhone—to which the watch is synced—now detects when I’m in a car, so I’m no longer receiving that bizarre order.
I generally like my “breathe” app, which reminds me to be mindful and stay in the moment. It leads me through a minute of deep breathing. Sometimes it appears when I am eating lunch, and I can just “snooze” it until I’m finished. Other times, it conveniently pops up when I’m in my reading chair.
Then there are the times my watch wants me to breathe at work when I’m checking out books to first-graders. Or walking down a corridor. One time I actually laughed out loud because the breathe command came as I was trying to organize a group of unruly seventh-graders. Yes, I wanted to say, I would love to take some time out to breathe, but I really can’t right now.
Maybe I will find time to tinker with all these settings when summer vacation begins, as I’m a school librarian. Like I said, it’s not easy. I was 40 minutes into a trip to Bangor when I remembered that my phone defaulted to “Do Not Disturb When Driving.” This feature also turns itself on when someone else is driving and I’m a passenger, but it’s easily remedied. If I want to use the phone then, I can just tap the message “I’m not Driving,” and I’m good.
But I was driving, so I had to pull over on I-95 to lie to my phone. Then I had to check for messages, both voice and text. Tractor trailers were whizzing by me at 70 mph. I vowed to find out how to disable this “Do Not Disturb” setting when I’m driving. I see the wisdom of this feature, but I am responsible enough to pull over if my phone beeps. Sometimes, I do want to be disturbed. Just—not as often as I am by all of my annoying devices.
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