🔗 Share this article

A sense of nervous excitement. Visible is the cold breath exhaled by my competitors as they perform the "about to run" jiggle on the start line.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local Saturday morning race and I'm serious. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I have to sort my tracker. As does the person beside me.

The person behind us sighs. I won't start until… done! Signal acquired, away I go.

During the scramble, it's hard to spot a wrist without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us participants who wear them.

We're witnessing a thriving, massive industry. Names like Apple Watch dominate, featuring an extensive selection of diverse devices to fit a variety of budgets. Based on how high tech the model you choose, price tags can vary between an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, I can't switch off."

"It reassures me… It feels like a supporter guiding me."

"I wish it wouldn't say about a restless night."

A small sample of the responses I've had from like-minded tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on my own device? Currently, annoying. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the foliage along my route are interfering with my GPS connection.

A vast number of us strap these small monitors onto our wrists and use them constantly, apparently comfortable with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

A distant memory are the days when we relied on them only to give us an estimation of our step count. Currently, they can measure our sleep quality, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we analyse a faithful picture of the truth? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the multitude of measurements and motivational messages just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I become a bit preoccupied with mine," one user reveals.

While she loves how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was not being productive enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a infant, there's no point to be told my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"I could, theoretically, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its fitness insights, but I'm unsure whether the myriad other functions it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

Inside the Device

Different brands of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of monitoring your vitals and analysing your data, but the most use detectors on the underside of the watch.

They usually project minute LED lights onto your skin which can observe pulsation, recording your BPM. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically aid early diagnosis, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us device users into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more vulnerable of a heart problem in the long term.

But how to understand these numbers is not straightforward. The expert concerns that as additional features are added, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on wearable tech concurs. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She observed a cycle with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They felt anxious. Their BPM rose. They got more worried. They checked again, and their reading went up again.

"If we see stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We check, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."