How a smartwatch can change your relationship with technology

Recently, I got a Samsung Gear S3 as a gift. Having used it for over a month, I want to share some thought on the gear in particular and smartwatches in general.

There's no denying it, the gear s3 is a great looking smartwatch. It does seem a little bulky on my tiny wrist but as far as the style is concerned, it really is one of the best ones out there. The version I'm using is the frontier edition with the matte black stainless steel casing. I did replace the silicon band with a nylon sport loop band though, since it was much more comfortable than the rather stiff silicon band which is included. Regardless, it uses a standard 22 mm lux so there are plenty of options to find what you like.

Moving to, in my opinion, the best hardware feature of the gear S3: the rotating bezel. It works a lot like any knob you might have experience with. Turning it to the left shows all the notification while the right houses all your widgets. It really is a very clever system and the connect between the hardware rotation and the software response is so harmonic, it almost seems like they are connected by a spring.

I have set the watch face to show up whenever I raise my wrist and it works almost every time and the list and categories of available styles are extensive, if a little lacking in quality. The same can be said about 3rd party apps which, with the exception of Uber and Here maps, are almost entirely absent. Having ordered the watch with the intention of using it to view notifications, I do not mind the apps, or lack thereof. But I do occasionally wish that an official Shazam app or Evernote for the watch existed. Thankfully, Samsung does provide in house alternative to most of the essentials.

What I want to focus on now, is the way I use my smartwatch for notifications. Every time an app that I have enabled gets a notification, I get a buzz. On raising my wrist, the display light up and I can see the contents of the notification. For text messages(+whatsapp, Instagram Dm's) and emails, I can reply right from my wrist. Considering these make up about 90% of my notifications, I rarely have to pick up my phone. You might think that this may be extremely distracting, but here is the kicker; I now spend considerably less time on my phone. I can also control my music or podcasts right from my wrist which is super convenient while walking, for example.

Getting an alert on your means that you can act on any important notification right away while completely ignoring your group texts. It is also great at helping you avoid dark design patter built by apps to make you stay online longer ( ever wonder why every time you want to check a dm, Instagram makes you go through your feed page). Avoiding these traps has helped me cut down on my social media usage drastically. Now, whenever I pick up my phone, its for a specific purpose: composing a long message/email, calling or adding a calendar event.

While I'm more aware of my notifications now than I ever was before, I am also less distracted by them. In a strange bit of irony, an electronic device has helped me distance myself from the increasingly toxic aspects of social media.

This goes without saying, but this anecdote might not be true for everyone. But those who say that smartwatches are useless have clearly not analysed this aspect deeply enough. The pros of having ambient information outweigh the cons of having to charge the thing ever few days, and I intend on putting the s3 on my wrist, everyday, for a long time.