Apple Watch Etiquette

[Exile714]

Ok, side rant, but I never really understood why this is an issue...although I suspect why.

People complain when people talk on their cell phones on the train, public transport or walking down the street.And yet, they don't complain when you talk to someone sitting next to you on the train or while walking down the street.

Why? In the olden days it was because cell phones were expensive and it tended to be business/rich people and the class-warfare "they think they are special" attitude combined with some jealously.
But now that it is ubiquitous, I think it is because they can't hear the other part of the conversation. They are being excluded from being able to eavesdrop.

I think the reason people get upset isn't the fact that it's a cell phone, but because people on cell phones speak very, very loudly. It's a behavioral adaptation to the fact that cellular voice is a flawed technology. Signals drop in and out, the digitization destroys nuance, and the delay makes it hard to get feedback. Add to that the fact that you can't see the person you're speaking to for subconscious, non-verbal cues, and the generally poor noise cancellation on phones (either too little or too much), and you've got people yelling into their phones.

The loudness of cell conversations makes them mentally disruptive, and drowns out other activities like actually talking. With the watch, the problems which create "cell yell" will be exacerbated by the distance between one's mouth and one's wrist.

 

[Newtons Apple]

We need to make sure we don't look like jerks using our watches.

No possible way for some people.

 

[macduke]

I think people will get used to people glancing at their smart watches and it won't be a big deal. Eventually people will stop associating glancing at your watch with needing to get going. The action of taking the phone out of your pocket and looking down at the screen is more interrupting than glancing at your wrist.

I'm hoping the Apple Watch will allow us to fine-tune the notifications that will appear on the device. I know it's possible to do some of that on the phone, but I'd like to see only the most important things on my wrist.