Same. I refused to connect it to the internet.

If you are willing to put in a fair amount of effort, you can have a smart home without accounts anywhere.

Most of the account based stuff is based upon open specs.

But you have to be somewhat technical and patient.

I unplugged my Alexa speaker last week because I needed the outlet for something else and haven’t plugged it back in. Never use the thing. I have a Google home mini that I really only keep around because I enjoy being able to turn my window AC on by saying “reroute power to life support”.

The health stuff on the Apple Watch is basically just for entertainment at this point. Which isn’t to say it can’t be useful, I definitely know people who have gotten more active because of the “gamification” of things like the activity rings.

If your watch reports say, a single atrial fibrillation event in any otherwise healthy individual, it doesn’t do a whole lot for you. Even if you bring that information to your doctor, they can’t be expected to do much with it. They could strap some additional monitors on you, but if it is a very rare event there isn’t much chance of it recurring when they are actively looking at it. In some cases, the anxiety caused by worrying about it can actually cause more issues than just not knowing.

I actually like my watch a lot, but more for just a notification device/convenient payment interface rather than a health tracker.

Ok but elite:dangerous on VR with a HOTAS is pretty cool. As is the sculpting software that’s out there.

The health stuff is a bit overblown anyway. On a day to day level it’s just junk data.

There’s so much variation between both between people and also for one person just depending on how they feel that you can’t tell what a particular number means.

There’s some argument that heart rate is useful for high-end cardio, where you want to keep track of exactly which heart rate band you’re in to be sure that you’re at capacity but still clearing all the lactate from your system. However, given how much these numbers can vary if you haven’t slept fully or you have a bit of a cold, or you overate, you’re probably better off learning to pace yourself.

Damn, I need my smartwatch at work because the extra notification on my wrist helps me pay attention to my phone. But that is a symptom of me being in IT at a place that doesn’t have support tickets 😕

When smart watches came about I thought it would be cool to be able to look at your watch when a notification comes in. Never ended up buying one and when I see how some people behave, I’m glad I never did. Some people will just glance mid conversation at their smart watch, which imo is just as bad as grabbing your phone mid conversation.

I’m happy with my cheap Casio. Looks heaps better too.

Most smart watches go too far but I love my Garmin Instinct. It feels like a modern digital. Just enough cool tools and features but still black and white. With the o2 sensor on it lasts nearly two weeks, a month with it off, before it needs charging. I can track hikes and bikes. Gives me exact coordinates with a push of a button and no subscription or additional monthly fees to use it. If I could afford a mechanical watch for the price I paid for my Garmin ($130 used) maybe I’d own one.

I sent my bother a text the other day. I got upset that he didn’t immediately respond, because I knew he had a smart watch.

I realized that I was getting upset for a condition neither of us set. I eventually heard from him and his watch didn’t really matter.

I also think the health monitoring is kinda creepy.

I needed to keep track of the time and I don’t always have my phone on me so I got a mechanical watch instead. It’s great! No having to charge it, no chance of it tracking me and I got a new hobby/interest out of it.

I love my smart watch for checking a notification that I can’t pull my phone out to check as my hands are usually wet and gross from my profession so it only makes sense to me.

Also, they work great as fitness trackers these days too, if you’re into that kind of thing otherwise a mechanical watch will work perfectly fine.

overpriced. limited utility. inferior to smartphones.

Same. Except I still occasionally use reddit, just not as much as I used to.

I only use FB messenger as it’s big here for communication and FB to post photos of my kids for my family to see which has only been recently, since I had kids. Before that I didn’t even touch FB.

Other than that, social media doesn’t interest me at all.

You don’t think you’ve used the freed-up brain capacity on other skills that are still useful?

Try not having a smartphone with you when you leave the house. Actually many starting returning back to basic phones just for calls and SMS.

Only thing I left on in my newish car is the lane change/blind spot warning and the “you are about to ram someone” alarm. Can’t remember the official names. They rarely actually help, but when they do, it can mean avoiding a collision.

Voice typing long messages is IMO faster than using a phone keyboard, even with gesture typing.

I have only very recently come around on that. When voice commands first came out, they were absolute garbage. I am still conditioned to never expect them to work, and am always pleasantly surprised when they do.

To be fair, I largely only use them for things like setting my alarm, because I still have an engrained expectation that they won’t work otherwise.