Tech Labeled "Smart" Does Not Make People Smart
Today Rianne opened the last card (of an array of cards) that I had made her ahead of an imminent anniversary. I think I prepared about 20 cards this past month and they're all "analogue" (physical, nothing digital about them).
People who insist on making everything digital are not advancing progress. They advance all sorts of things, but not progress. It's not about "new tech" vs "old tech" but about "tech" or "no tech", as not everything must be done digitally and there are many things that are better off done the "old-fashioned" way.
Watches (for wrists) are a good example of it. Old watches didn't need recharging; some had batteries that could last years and some used kinetic energy to keep working without battery changes. They would last decades, in some cases even centuries.
This year we caught several bloggers ranting about how useless their "smart" watches were and today we saw this complaint about watchOS 27. The use cases are weak and scarce, e.g. servicing or feeding addicts who think they need to check E-mail every 10 minutes on an 1-inch-wide screen (on which it's difficult to read and impractical to reply).
Society should not judge people based on how much "tech" they possess and carry around, just like it ought not assess wisdom based on salaries. Andy wrote about this not too long ago. █