…or a fad.  This movement has been evolving for centuries.

For many people, myself included, the concept of wearable technology – wearables for short – is taking things a little too far.  Do we really need “smart” watches so we can post to social media at any second?  Is Google Glass essential to function in business or socially?  Today, I say “NO”.  But what will be my answer in 2,3,5 or 10 years from now?

For some proper context, let’s go back in time (no pun intended) and look at the early, if not the first wearables: pocket watches.  Precise timekeeping was not commonplace before the medieval period, and I’m sure people got along just fine by observing the position of the sun.  But as clocks became  more and more prevalent, so did timekeeping assume a more predominant role in aiding commerce and organizing a growing and more complex society.  As society progressed, punctuality became not just desirable but inceasingly essential and the pocket watch evolved into the wristwatch.  A person wearing a wristwatch was making a statement that they were a serious, modern, productive person.  Perhaps even a moral person.

So the question may be, does a need drive the technology, or does the advent of the technology reveal a need?  Or indeed create a need?  Certainly in the middle ages when the first bells tolled to mark the hours, someone said “what do we need that for?”.  Then, “why could anyone possibly need to carry (later wear) a watch?” Now fast forward – I know that when cellular phones began to be common in the 1990s, I was a doubter.  Yet today everyone including our children view them as a neccessity.  And so it will likely be with smartwatches and wearable computers.

But didn’t we become slaves to the clock?  Many have argued so.  Have our smartphones evolved from capable servants to unrelenting masters?  The epidemic of people unable to ignore the devices even for a few minutes to concentrate on important tasks such as driving suggest it may be true.  Then what of our newest “toys”?  What hell do they have in store for us?  And what about future as yet undreamed of technology?  What price will we pay for them?

So the new fad isn’t a fad or so new either.  And though I find myself once again skeptical of the new technology, I will no doubt be sporting it myself in a few years.  But must we be damned to losing another little slice of our soul to each succeeding generation of technology?  Sadly, I think this is one question to which I can answer “yes”.

Cross posted at Men Out of Work Blog