"How My Girlfriend And I Tried To Fit The Apple Watch Into Our Relationship"
It really wasn’t until we had given up on actively trying to use the Watch for communicating that its messaging functions started to make sense. I’d check my wrist, probably to an obnoxious extent, but it was still better than pulling out my phone or leaving it on the table during meals. Carrying laundry down the street, I resolved one time — ONE TIME — to use Siri dictation because my hands were full. …
More than anything else, however, our communication comes back to Digital Touches like the heartbeat — the aspect of the Watch that doesn’t try to imitate traditional chatting. Sometimes it’s in the middle of a long screening, or a lapse at work. Before the Watch, we would often send each other random messages with the subtext “just letting you know I’m still alive.” We all do send those kinds of messages. My partner and I don’t do that as much anymore, though. The non-textual heartbeat is enough.
Miller touches on something that I continue to deeply believe in: The Watch is not something you should actively try to use. I think it will take some time for us to embrace that, but the more we accept the fact that the Watch is a watch (and not so much an iPhone on your wrist), the more we’ll learn when to engage with it and when to leave it alone.