For anyone who has read some of my previous posts, it is pretty fair to describe me as a bit of a "techie nerd".  I try to chalk it up to my work....I mean, I am an owner in a Technology company, so I really should use this stuff, but the reality is that I would likely be using it anyways. 

Like many people, I got pretty heavy into the world of wearable technology.  I was fascinated by the amount of data that I could get....even if most of the actual data really had no meaningful impact on my life.  If you have seen me over the past 2 years, you've likely seen me with some sort of new device on either my wrist or my belt (or both) to keep track of virtually all movement I ever make.  In fact, there are many movements that I make to simply prevent the inactivity alarm on my device from going off.....or to make sure that I hit all 10,000 steps in my daily goal. 

Well, I'm ok with becoming a little less smart for a while, without having to go "cold turkey" on the device side. 

Enter my newest device, the Withings Activite...

Sure, I haven't given up on the whole idea of monitoring my activity.  This device (which happens to be stunningly beautiful, by the way) while it looks like an ordinary watch, does keep track of my activity.  It will tell me how many steps I walked, how much I slept and even some of my runs/swims.  However, it does it without being intruding like most devices.  It won't bug me to get up and it won't buzz at me for no apparent reason.  

As well, it won't do what many other watches will do....it won't tell me when I have an email, when someone bid on something I posted on EBay or that my aunt likes the latest picture of my kids on Facebook....and, that is good with me! 

The Bottom Line

In a world where I have too many emails accounts, a number of social media accounts and even multiple phone numbers, I simply have hit the limit on how "smart" my life needs to be.  I still value keeping track of the data in my life, but no longer need it to control my life.  I am ok to go back to a simple watch-like interface that lets me check on my data when I want to.  If I want to have something interrupt my life with information that doesn't affect me all that much....well, I have a talkative 4 year old for that!