Odd gestures in public ⁄ Manual do Usuário

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Screen compulsion is a widespread problem — anyone who says they don’t have it just hasn’t realized it yet. Is ditching the screen while keeping the tech apparatus connected to the internet a possible way out?

I’ve been thinking about this since I put an Apple Watch on my wrist. (I’ve since taken it off after four months.) Apple’s watch fulfilled the prophecy made by Brazilian pop duo Claudinho e Buchecha back in 1998 — and suddenly, I could control my calendar — and many other things — without using my hands.

More or less, to be precise. I swapped finger taps on the screen for gestures. There are two available ones.

By quickly rotating your wrist, watchOS dismisses the app, card, or alarm in focus and returns to the home screen. Handy for stopping the alarm when my hands are dirty, washing the dishes, or cooking.

The other is a double-tap of your index finger and thumb to “click” on buttons and scroll through cards or long screens.

In September, those blessed with watchOS 27 will get one more gesture: a single tap with those same fingers. You’ll be able not only to scroll through cards but also to open them.

The two that exist today work really well, which led me to use them frequently — which in turn left me somewhat worried about how others might perceive me, making random hand gestures for no apparent reason.

The watch’s gestures join those of my AirPods, which I’ve been using for longer and let me dismiss long notifications by shaking my head horizontally, as if saying “no” (🙂‍↔️). Imagine a passerby seeing me on the street shaking my head. Weird. The “yes” nod (🙂‍↕️) answers calls.

It’s as if wearable technology is creating an evolution (or regression) of Homo sapiens. We’re turning into Homo schizophrenicus, jerking our heads and limbs around to handle tasks that — for me, at least — are fine to do on a phone or watch screen.

You can imagine others in the future. Clapping your hands to turn lights on or off? Classic. I suspect the Apple Watch sensors could pick up on that. Shaking your head violently to play a heavy metal playlist? Flipping the bird to go offline? Imagine the possibilities…

Despite these recent Apple examples, gesture use goes way back and comes from other R&D departments as well.

We’ve already had cameras that respond to gestures to snap a photo; TVs with built-in cameras that changed the volume if you flailed your arms; and the Kinect, Microsoft’s ill-fated answer to the success of rival Nintendo Wii. It was like the Wii, but without physical controllers. I wonder if that very difference is what kept Kinect from taking off — especially considering how in-air gestures persisted in the years that followed.

The next frontier proposed by Meta — a company renowned for launching creepy tech — is a pair of glasses (the pervy kind) paired with a bracelet that "interprets" gestures. What could possibly go wrong?

I recognize the convenience in some cases. Few. The screen happens to be the most attractive interface, but it’s not as if shutting yourself away with powerful noise-canceling headphones, or redirecting screen interactions to a smaller one on your wrist, could actually pull us out of the stupor of the hyper-personalized internet of the 2020s.

Today, the only gestures that excite me are the ones I make with my hands when I’m enthusiastically talking to someone, face to face, with no watches, headphones, or screens around.

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