Could I Be Addicted to This Smartwatch?
A sense of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the cold breath emanating from my rivals as they execute the "pre-race" shuffle on the starting line.
A quick flick of the hips.
I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I'm serious. The countdown begins...
Wait a second. I must sort my watch. So does the guy next to me.
The person waiting sighs. I refuse to go untilā¦ there! Signal acquired, I'm off.
In the mele, it's hard to see a arm without a smartwatch on it. And it's not just us runners who use them.
It's a booming, multi-billion pound industry. Names like Garmin lead the market, each with an wide range of different models to suit a spectrum of budgets. Based on how high tech the model you choose, costs can start from Ā£100 to a small fortune.
"It drives me insane, it's impossible to switch off."
"It reassures meā¦ It acts as a friend encouraging me."
"Stop telling me I've had a restless night."
A handful of the responses I've had from like-minded device users when I question what they think of theirs.
A Sea of Statistics
My thoughts on mine? Right now, annoying. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are interfering with my satellite signal.
Millions of us fasten these small monitors onto our wrists and use them constantly, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're continuously recording us.
Long past are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an idea of our step count. Currently, they can track our sleep patterns, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.
It's a challenge to find a physical metric they don't track.
But can they do what they claim to do? And are the data points we scrutinise a accurate representation of reality? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and motivational messages just increase our daily stresses?
A Love-Hate Relationship
"I find myself getting a bit fixated with mine," an individual admits.
While she loves how her device records her exercise, she finds some of its other features "excessive" at times - a feeling initially realised during a pregnancy.
Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling 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 all too clearly."
Couldn't she just stop wearing it?
"It's possible, theoretically, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I love it for its exercise data, but I'm unsure whether the additional features it can now do is possibly excessive for me."
The Technology Behind the Tracking
Different brands of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of monitoring your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the most use sensors on the reverse of the watch.
They usually emit small, green LED lights onto your arm which can observe pulsation, recording your BPM. Higher-end devices measure changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.
Expert Perspectives
A data scientist says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the continuously improving tech could potentially prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".
He points out that some of the latest wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.
This does not necessarily indicate someone is about to have a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the future.
But how to make sense of these numbers is not straightforward. The expert worries that as additional features are added, people may struggle to fully understand their data.
"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.
A health researcher studying cardiology echoes this sentiment. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".
She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their BPM went up. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their reading rose further.
"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
