Could I Be Addicted to My Smartwatch?
An atmosphere of nervous excitement. I can see the chilled vapour exhaled by my fellow runners as they execute the "starting line" shuffle on the starting line.
A rapid flick of the hips.
I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. It's almost time...
Wait a second. I have to start my device. So does the guy beside me.
The person in the line sighs. I refuse to go until… yes! Connection established, I'm off.
In the mele, it's hard to find a person without a fitness tracker on it. And this extends beyond us runners who wear them.
This is a thriving, multi-billion dollar industry. Companies like Apple Watch are prevalent, featuring an wide selection of various devices to suit a variety of budgets. Based on how high tech the watch you select, costs can vary between £100 to a significant investment.
"It drives me insane, I'm unable to switch off."
"It provides solace… It's like a supporter guiding me."
"Please don't notify me I've experienced a restless night."
Just some of the comments I've had from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they their opinion is on theirs.
The Data Dilemma
My feelings on my own device? Currently, frustrating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the trees along my route are disrupting my satellite signal.
Millions of us attach these compact devices onto our arms and use them all day and night, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're constantly recording us.
Gone are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an estimation of our pedometer reading. Now, they can measure our sleep patterns, stress levels, glucose levels, our body battery.
It's difficult to find a bodily function they don't track.
But do they do what they claim to do? And are the data points we scrutinise a faithful picture of the truth? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of metrics and cheerleading alerts just contribute to our everyday anxiety?
Addiction or Aid?
"I find myself getting a bit obsessed with mine," a wearer reveals.
While she loves how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other features "daunting" at times - a feeling first discovered during a pregnancy.
Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was failing to be energetic enough. Now, the watch keeps telling her she's had a bad night's sleep.
"I've got a six-month old, it's unnecessary for me to be told my sleep was poor," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."
Couldn't she just take it off?
"It's possible, I suppose, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she continues. "I value it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is possibly overkill for me."
The Technology Behind the Tracking
Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your bodily functions and processing your data, but the majority use optical sensors on the reverse of the watch.
They usually shine minute LED lights onto your wrist which can observe blood flow, recording your heartbeat. More advanced devices measure changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to assess your stress levels.
A Fine Balance
A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually prevent illness, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".
He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.
This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the future.
But how to understand these numbers is not straightforward. The expert fears that as additional features are incorporated, people may find it hard to fully understand their data.
"I'm not entirely convinced that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a beneficial thing," he says.
A clinical psychologist specialising in patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced heightened worry and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".
She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM rose. They got more worried. They checked again, and their reading increased again.
"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
