> Is there a term for complementing something that is objectively much worse than what came before only because it's better than what we have now.
What kind of smartwatch came before it, that had a battery that held for more than a week? And no, a simple watch is not a smartwatch, so that doesn't count.
I don't think these are apples to apples comparisons. Yes, watches had much longer batteries, but they didn't have smart features. So you're really comparing the Pebble to something with a comparable feature set, like another smart watch.
Phones used to be powered directly from the wire and work even during a power outage and now they have batteries and die, but I'm still willing to trade that feature to have a GPS and text messaging.
Some of it has to do with existing experience. I suspect many people in this thread have not worn something other than a smart watch with regularity in at least 15 years, possible longer if they were below watch wearing age when cell phones became common. Additionally, I'd argue that the pebble is closer to an apple watch than even a digital watch and certainly closer than an automatic watch. You chose to compare a smart phone to a flip phone rather than a POTS phone? Likely you either have very limited experience with POTS phones or you view the smart/flip comparison as more apt. Either way, I think context is important when making comparisons so I still think it's entirely fair to say "the Pebble has good battery life".
And those Casio watches were terrible. Even without a comparison to anything else, they just didn't work reliably.
I agree with the existing experience point, I hadn't worn a "dumb" watch since middle school (~12 years ago) until I finally ended up buying a smart watch last month, which I wear nearly 24/7.
If it's just for telling the time I don't exactly need a watch, I'm almost always looking at or within reach of some device that can tell me the time anyway. A smart watch is useful for other purposes.
Also while weeklong battery lives would be nice, even needing to charge daily isn't too bad, I just stick it on the charger at night while relaxing and getting ready to sleep.
I don't know of any official name, but it would be adjacent to the Rachet Effect [0]. Where the Rachet Effect is a steady increase in expectations, rather than a steady decrease, they both derive from the same limited time frame used for comparisons.
For me, I didn't wear watches before. Pebble got me into it. And now I wear watches with no batteries, so maybe reverse Stockholm syndrome?
I loved my Garmin, but I hated the notifications. And I couldn't disable the fitness related notifications. I'm at a point where I hate all notifications though, and have them only enabled for work and my wife. Everyone/everything else can wait.
Is there a term for complementing something that is objectively much worse than what came before only because it's better than what we have now.
Stockholm syndrome?
Watch batteries used to last month's/ years / didn't need batteries at all.
It's the same with phones, they used to last a week easily, now we get excited when they last 2 days.