The principles of wearable etiquette

By Victoria Song , a senior reporter focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 11 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.

I had many reasons why. I didn’t want any distractions. It seemed ridiculous to squeeze in a workout on my big day just to keep my streaks going. As a wearables reviewer, I didn’t want to bring work to my wedding. Plus, there wasn’t a strap in the world that would’ve camouflaged the Apple Watch or whatever other tracker I was testing. I didn’t want my Oura Ring memorialized in my wedding photos, either. So I left everything on their chargers.

I didn’t think too hard about it until the other week when I saw a Threads post. “Normalize not wearing your Apple Watch to fancy dinners,” it read. I thought about it again when I saw a picture of a guy wearing an Apple Vision Pro at his wedding, the bride looking on in what I assume to be disbelief. The ensuing discourse online reminded me that uncertainty was another reason why I left the wearables off on my wedding day. Wearable tech, while more commonplace than the days of Google Glass, is still an emerging category — and one where the social script is still being written.

Is it rude to wear a smartwatch if you’re a bridesmaid? Are you a glasshole if you use smart glasses to take a picture of a cute dog on your commute? Am I being unnecessarily cautious because I’m afraid to wear the Vision Pro when alone in public? I’m no etiquette expert, so I decided to ask one for some wearable do’s and don’ts.

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