Maybe you already have an Apple Watch. Maybe your whole family already loves and wears them. If so, well, I probably can't convince you to remove the thing from your wrist, put it on the floor, and stomp on it until you hear crunching glass.
If you don't already have one, yay, you. Here's why I think you shouldn't buy one for your child or yourself. Part of what we're trying to teach the next generation is to pay attention to what's going on here and now. We all want today's youth to be able to concentrate on what's in front of them. Moreover, we know from boatloads of research that spending too much time plugged in and online does damage to young minds.
We (parents and educators) often ask them to put their phones away when we're teaching, eating meals together, meeting for special events. And because they want to do what's right, they are willing to hide their phones out of reach. They agree to suspend their constant checking long enough to have class, to listen to a speaker, to participate in an event.
However, if they wear an Apple Watch, even after they put the phone in the basket or on the side table or on the floor, their wrist will vibrate with notifications from every incoming text, SnapChat, email, Instagram, Discord, and other apps I don't know exist but are super cool right now. How can my class compete with a shaking wrist announcement that something else is going on, that if the student doesn't check what it is right away, they'll miss out? Ugh.
In the spring, our Head of School called a holiday, which is always an exciting moment for our students. Unfortunately, he sent the email while half of the school was in Chapel listening to a wonderful reflection from a graduating Senior. While the students weren't mostly on their phones during the speech and were actually listening as we older people would want, the ones with notifications on their Apple Watches saw the announcement and then picked up their phones to share the news. The poor speaker at the front didn't stand a chance of holding their attention.
So I say, DOWN WITH APPLE WATCHES...or at least, please don't buy one for your child. And that's the end of my rant. Of course, I'd love to see your responses, even if you disagree, in the comments.
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I'm adding this last part a day later. My friend read this post and sent me a link to T-Mobile's SyncUP For Kids, so I decided to edit my post to say that it's not just Apple watches I find evil, but anything in this genre.
Doesn’t this apply to adults too? At this point, maybe we need devices that make it easier for us to ignore them as much as we need devices that make it easier for us to connect.
Absolutely agree that I wish nobody of any age wore Apple watches. Yes, there are so many apps that turn off notifications to help us pay attention…yet we keep turning them back on again. Alas.