Could I Be Hooked on My Wearable Device?

There's a feeling of anticipation. I can see the frosty air coming from my competitors as they execute the "pre-race" wiggle on the beginning point.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. It's almost time...

Wait a second. I must adjust my watch. As does the guy beside me.

The person behind us sighs. I won't start until… there! GPS ready, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's challenging to find a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us participants who use them.

We're witnessing a booming, massive sector. Companies like Garmin dominate, featuring an broad range of different devices to fit a variety of needs. Depending on how advanced the device you select, price tags can vary between a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"It drives me insane, I'm unable to switch off."

"It provides solace… It acts as a supporter supporting me."

"Stop telling me about a bad night's sleep."

A small sample of the responses I've had from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My feelings on mine? Right now, irritating. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the overhead branches I'm running below are blocking my GPS connection.

Millions of us fasten these little monitors onto our arms and wear them constantly, apparently comfortable with the fact they're continuously monitoring us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them exclusively to give us an rough count of our daily steps. Now, they can track our nightly rest, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they fail to monitor.

But can they do what they claim to do? And are the numbers we obsess over a true reflection of reality? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of readings and cheerleading alerts just increase our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a quite preoccupied with mine," one user confesses.

While she loves how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a significant period.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Now, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I am caring for a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"I could, perhaps, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your vitals and analysing your data, but the majority use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically emit minute LED lights onto your wrist which can observe pulsation, recording your BPM. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to gauge your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually save lives, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

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

But how to interpret these numbers is not straightforward. The expert worries that as additional features are incorporated, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so much data is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher studying cardiology concurs. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse increased. They got more worried. They checked again, and their anxiety increased again.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."