I’m actually pretty excited about this. Been trying to get into journaling recently after some life altering events that’s happened in my life. I know I could always use pen and paper, but I’m intrigued enough that it has my interest.
Well, hopefully people get a lot of value out of it. 🤷♂️
Personally the mindfulness feature on the watch is not bad. Randomly it just prompts you to take a minute to reflect. Is that true mindfulness? Maybe not. Are they appropriating the term? Sure. Is it still helping people? Yes. I don’t think it will keep them away from real meditation. What are your thoughts on the guided meditation available through Fitness+?
Well for that matter, taking moments to reflect is itself part of mindfulness as I understand it. And I certainly don’t mean to be gatekeeping or telling other people what works for them.
Regarding Fitness+, I haven’t tried its guided meditation, but I doubt I would be troubled by it.
I guess I’m not saying “don’t use this” or necessarily poopooing it. There’s just something slightly disconcerting about it. It’s taking something that’s totally free, but requires considerable time and effort, and selling it as a bite-sized consumable.
During Apple’s Vision Pro video, they teased a “mindfulness app” that, according to Tom’s as well, shows you twirly “whoa dude” visuals combined with prompts. While I have little doubt that such an experience is pleasurable (I want to try it), it seems like a counterfeit of any real meditation or mindfulness practice. And as someone who gets real benefit from a mindful meditation practice, I’m a little nervous watching a huge corporation try to sell it as a product feature. You can’t pay for mindfulness (except with your time and attention) and you don’t need any product at all to get started. And frankly, I think any practitioner would discourage a light show, at least when getting started, because such a spectacle is more likely to put you back in your head, rather than helping you find separation from it.
I’m similarly unsure of whether Apple’s “journaling” feature will really foster introspection. I have nothing against journaling apps, and maybe theirs is a good one, but I’m a little worried that pulling in photos and signals from your devices will result in something like an “instagram for yourself” rather than any real journaling.
So, I’m not exactly against this features, but I really think that consumers are going to be fed a bubblegum mass-produced “woo” that distracts from the real benefits of mindfulness and journaling. It’s maybe a bit like the Apple Watch as a fitness tracker: sure, it does a good job monitoring your heartbeat, but buying an Apple Watch does not help you work out and working out is something you can 100% do for free.
I don’t see the two as mutually exclusive. You can have these kind of “fun” apps. The journal app might be really cool to see what you were doing and how you felt 5 years ago. You can also do those kind of deep reflections with paper or a word processor or whatever.
If it lets people get into mindfulness, however adulterated you might describe it, isn’t that still a good thing?
