Am I Dependent on My Smartwatch?
There's a building tension. I can see the cold breath emanating from my rivals as they execute the "starting line" wiggle on the starting line.
A rapid movement of the hips.
I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. It's almost time...
Wait a second. I have to sort my watch. The same goes for the guy next to me.
The person waiting expresses impatience. I refuse to go untilā¦ yes! GPS ready, I'm off.
In the mele, it's difficult to see a person without a fitness tracker on it. And this isn't only us participants who rely on them.
We're witnessing a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Brands like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, all offering an extensive array of different versions to fit a range of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the model you go for, costs can range from a hundred pounds to a significant investment.
"It makes me crazy, I can't relax."
"It comforts meā¦ It acts as a friend supporting me."
"Stop telling me I've had a bad night's sleep."
A handful of the responses I've had from other smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they feel about theirs.
A Sea of Statistics
My feelings on mine? Currently, irritating. It's reporting I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the trees I'm running below are interfering with my location tracking.
Countless individuals of us fasten these small devices onto our arms and wear them 24/7, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're continuously tracking us.
Gone are the days when we relied on them exclusively to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Currently, they can measure our nightly rest, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our VO2 max.
It's difficult to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.
But can they do what they advertise? 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 contribute to our sense of overwhelm?
A Complicated Bond
"I find myself getting a quite obsessed with mine," an individual confesses.
While she appreciates how her device monitors her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.
Before she realised she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.
"I have a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be told I'm tired," she says. "That fact is perfectly well."
Is it not possible to just remove it?
"I could, theoretically, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I love it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps too much for me."
How Do They Work?
Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your health metrics and interpreting your data, but the vast bulk use sensors on the back of the watch.
They typically emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can observe pulsation, recording your heartbeat. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to assess your recovery state.
The Professional Viewpoint
One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".
He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an arrhythmia.
This does not necessarily indicate someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a blood clot in the future.
But how to make sense of these figures is complicated. The expert fears that as further capabilities are introduced, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.
"I have some doubts that having the capacity to monitor so many metrics is such a good idea," he says.
A professor focusing on cardiology concurs. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".
She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They became worried. Their pulse went up. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their reading went up again.
"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
