Am I Dependent on This Wearable Device?

An atmosphere of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my fellow runners as they execute the "pre-race" jiggle on the start line.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local Saturday morning race and I mean business. It's almost time...

Wait a second. I must start my device. The same goes for the runner next to me.

The person in the line expresses impatience. I'm not moving until… yes! Connection established, and I'm running.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to see a arm without a fitness tracker on it. And it's not just us participants who wear them.

It's a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Brands like Apple Watch dominate, each with an wide array of diverse models to suit a spectrum of needs. Based on how feature-packed the watch you choose, costs can vary between a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"It drives me insane, I'm unable to stop checking."

"It reassures me… It acts as a supporter encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me I've experienced a restless night."

A handful of the reactions people have shared from like-minded smartwatch wearers when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on my own device? Right now, frustrating. It's telling me I'm off pace, leading me to doubt whether the trees along my route are blocking my location tracking.

Millions of us fasten these little devices onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them exclusively to give us an estimation of our daily steps. Currently, they can track our sleep quality, heart rate, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

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

But do they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we obsess over a faithful picture of reality? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of readings and cheerleading alerts just add to our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a a little fixated with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she loves how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other capabilities "daunting" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was failing to be active enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a infant, I don't need to be told I've not slept," she says. "I know that perfectly well."

Couldn't she just remove it?

"It's possible, perhaps, but I have this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I value it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the most use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They commonly project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can observe blood flow, recording your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

A data scientist says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which regularly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is erratic signals in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer 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 make sense of these numbers is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions 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 clinical psychologist studying wearable tech concurs. Her work into the influence of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use healthcare resources".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they spotted a alarming metric on their watch. They felt anxious. Their heart rate rose. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their reading went up again.

"If we see numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, understandably, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."