To the editor: I have watched the smartwatch trend become more prevalent among friends and strangers to the point where I’ve felt that I too should join the movement. (“Why I’m getting rid of my smartwatch,” Opinion, Dec. 17)
I have a lot of feelings about swapping out the small Gucci watch my husband gave me 20 years ago for a tracking device. I’ve decided that I do not need another guilt-inducing gadget keeping track of how I’m doing.
Furthermore, I read that members of this particular device cult are vulnerable to being hacked and their health data being distributed God knows where.
Ultimately, tracking and focusing on this data could reduce one’s self-awareness to only those numbers. Then, we compete not only with ourselves, but also against others with smartwatches trying to outlive us with their superior numbers.
From just sitting down with a friend and a pastry (perhaps they are the same thing), one might get a more humane perspective on what is the true measure of good health. I prefer the company of friends and perhaps kicking back with a coffee, a glazed doughnut and a good book devoid of bad news about one’s health.
So, stop with the smartwatch surveillance and leave me to the lesser forms of a life well lived.
Marjorie Marks Fond, Sherman Oaks
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To the editor: Cate Twining-Ward’s piece, though specifically about devices and apps for athletic training, applies across the entire spectrum of seductive gadgets that have infiltrated our modern lives. Though theoretically they aim to simplify life, in practice they can become ends in themselves.
At a minimum, this incisive, cautionary essay is worth a few minutes of reading time away from our electronic world.
James Christiansen, Oak View, Calif.