{"id":260589,"date":"2026-08-28T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/pull-the-plug-making-a-case-against-wearable-tech\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T14:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:35:00","slug":"pull-the-plug-making-a-case-against-wearable-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/pull-the-plug-making-a-case-against-wearable-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Pull the Plug: Making a Case Against Wearable Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"GenericCalloutWrapper-loJzHJ dbaHtT\" data-testid=\"GenericCallout\">\n<aside aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"PullQuoteEmbedWrapper-sc-efqGLV dYCNhz composition body pullquote bordered\" data-testid=\"pullquote-embed\">\n<p><span class=\"paywall\">Wearable tech is for people who can\u2019t take a walk unless it gives them points in an invisible competition they\u2019re playing against themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Which, to be fair, is not entirely their fault. In many cases, the robot tail wags the living dog by tricking it\u2014tricking us\u2014into caring about obscure metrics, then gamifying the process of improving them. Two years ago I\u2019d never even heard of a VO<sub>2<\/sub> max. But after a late-night <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/story\/inside-elite-athletes-recovery-tricks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"noopener\">deep dive into my health app<\/a> revealed that I have one; that unbeknownst to me, my watch had been keeping tabs on it for years; and\u2014horror of horrors\u2014that mine was merely above average rather than high, optimizing this questionably important measure became a personal obsession.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">I am a geek, and a try-hard, and an egoist. I\u2019d love to throw my watch into the East River. But I can\u2019t, because I\u2019ve grown accustomed to knowing how many imaginary flights of stairs I climbed yesterday (so many!) and just how deeply I slept last night (not very!). The watch hasn\u2019t transformed me into a monster, but it\u2019s enhanced my preexisting monstrous conditions: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/story\/the-biohacking-diaries\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"noopener\">a thirst for validation, a need to be constantly graded and evaluated<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Things could be worse. I could be addicted instead to the pervert glasses manufactured by Google and Meta or the ones to come from Apple and Snap. Anecdotally, I\u2019ve read that wearable computers like these are a godsend for people with visual impairment. This is good for them. But nobody else could \u00adpossibly have a compelling reason to put on Meta \u00adglasses. These devices are morally questionable as well as aesthetically heinous; at least when dirtbags attempt to use their smartphones to take creepshots of strangers, it\u2019s possible to catch the attempted voyeurs in the act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Computer glasses erase that prospect. They\u2019re the embodiment of Daniel Lavery\u2019s immortal evisceration of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/topic\/black-mirror\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"noopener\">Black Mirror<\/a>:<\/em> \u201cWhat if phones, but too much?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">We already live in a hall of black mirrors. Screens have invaded our taxis, our billboards, our children\u2019s toys, our very refrigerators. There\u2019s a \u201csmart\u201d version of everything from washing machines and light bulbs to window coverings and umbrellas. My grill has an app. Tech has crept into every facet of everyday life, like an invisible fog of ones and zeros. All that, <em>and<\/em> you need a leather belt with a tiny computer inside that tells you when you\u2019ve eaten too much? Isn\u2019t that what a regular belt is supposed to do?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">No more! If this is smart living, I\u2019d \u00adrather be dumb.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/story\/apple-watch-wearable-tech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wearable tech is for people who can\u2019t take a walk unless it gives them points in an invisible competition they\u2019re playing against themselves. Which, to be fair, is not entirely their fault. In many cases, the robot tail wags the living dog by tricking it\u2014tricking us\u2014into caring about obscure metrics, then gamifying the process of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3586,16662,1792,5358],"class_list":{"0":"post-260589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-apple-watch","10":"tag-from-the-magazine","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}