Why that smart watch is not such a clever idea especially during COVID-19

The first time I experienced this, I wondered why my friend had double-booked me with the endof the world – the only explanation I could think of for why she was so obsessed with the time.

Then my husband got a smart watch and suddenly my eyes were opened to the incessant beeps and flashes and vibrations I'm competing with. All because it's crucial for him to know he's got an email, or a link on LinkedIn, or he's taken 10,000 steps, or – most infuriating of all – that someone in his network, in another part of the city, has finished a bike ride.

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Seriously? Should I be setting a personal best in something to get your attention? It's like we're at a time when human interaction now plays second, third, maybe 11th fiddle to what I think is the beginning of AI control.

I hate it because it contributes to the cult of busy, busy, busy. Feeling overwhelmed? Turn the damn thing off! I hate it because it supports the false belief that we can – and should – multi-task, a habit research tells us makes us unproductive, and experience tells us makes us bad company.

Mostly, I hate it because human connection shouldn't be taken for granted. While virtual communities are crucial in these COVID-19 times, nothing replaces person-to-person contact, even at a distance of 1.5 metres. We should be valuing these now rare moments when we can attune ourselves to the whole package of human communication: expression, tone, energy, even aroma. What alert could be more important than that?

I try not to be judge-y because, well, I've been there. Full disclosure: I did once have a short dalliance with a fitness tracker. I'm not proud of what I did, but what can I say? I was seduced. It caught me at a low point in my life, told me it would make me more beautiful, more popular with my friends. I became quite addicted to the messages from my little fitspo friend.

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Until, one day, I realised I was being controlled by the continual checking on things that usually just carry on of their own accord: walking, sleeping, breathing. So I did what all parents do with devices they don't want. I gave it to my daughter, who then wore it in the bath and put the thing to sleep forever.

Life is for living, not measuring the living. And being with another person is, for now, standing a healthy 1.5 metres apart, looking each other in the eye, listening with openness, speaking with authenticity and kindness (and potentially slightly more volume than normal – remember, 1.5 metres), and putting the screen down! To me that's not just an alert, that's an alarm.

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