Could I Be Dependent on My Wearable Device?
A sense of feeling of anticipation. I can see the chilled vapour coming from my rivals as they perform the "about to run" shuffle on the beginning point.
A swift twitch of the hips.
I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I'm serious. The countdown begins...
Oh, hang on. I have to sort my watch. The same goes for the person beside me.
The person in the line tuts. I refuse to go untilā¦ done! GPS ready, away I go.
Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to spot a person without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us participants who use them.
This is a booming, multi-billion dollar sector. Names like Garmin are prevalent, featuring an wide array of diverse versions to suit a range of needs. Depending on how high tech the model you choose, prices can vary between an affordable sum to a significant investment.
"It makes me crazy, I'm unable to stop checking."
"It reassures meā¦ It's like a friend guiding me."
"Stop telling me I've experienced a bad night's sleep."
A handful of the responses I've received from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.
The Monitoring Conundrum
My feelings on my own device? At this moment, annoying. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the foliage along my route are disrupting my GPS connection.
A vast number of us fasten these small monitors onto our arms and use them all day and night, seemingly at ease with the fact they're constantly tracking us.
Long past are the days when we depended on them exclusively to give us an rough count of our pedometer reading. Now, they can analyse our nightly rest, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.
It's a challenge to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.
But do they do what they say they do? And are the statistics we analyse a faithful picture of reality? Do they improve our daily wellness, or do the multitude of readings and constant notifications just increase our sense of overwhelm?
Addiction or Aid?
"I find myself getting a a little obsessed with mine," a wearer admits.
While she appreciates how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a significant period.
Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch kept telling her she was not being active enough. Now, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.
"I have a six-month old, I don't need to be notified I've not slept," she says. "That fact is only too well."
Is it not possible to just remove it?
"It's possible, perhaps, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I love it for its workout tracking, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps too much for me."
How Do They Work?
Each model of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your health metrics and interpreting your data, but the majority use sensors on the back of the watch.
They typically project small, green LED lights onto your arm which can detect blood flow, recording your BPM. Higher-end devices measure changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.
A Fine Balance
One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could potentially save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".
He points out that the most advanced wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.
This does not automatically signal someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the years to come.
But how to understand these readings is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions are introduced, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.
"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a good idea," he says.
A professor studying patient behaviour concurs. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a set of heart condition patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".
She identified a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their heart rate rose further.
"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We check, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."
