🔗 Share this article

An atmosphere of building tension. Apparent is the cold breath emanating from my competitors as they execute the "starting line" wiggle on the beginning point.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I'm focused. Three, two, one...

Oh, hang on. I need to start my tracker. So does the guy alongside me.

The person in the line sighs. I won't start until… done! Signal acquired, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's challenging to find a arm without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us runners who wear them.

We're witnessing a explosive, multi-billion pound sector. Brands like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, all offering an extensive selection of various models to cater to a variety of needs. Depending on how advanced the watch you choose, price tags can vary between £100 to a small fortune.

"It makes me crazy, I can't switch off."

"It comforts me… It's like a supporter encouraging me."

"Stop telling me I've had a restless night."

A small sample of the comments people have shared from like-minded device users when I ask what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My feelings on mine? Currently, frustrating. It's telling me I'm off pace, making me wonder whether the foliage along my route are interfering with my GPS connection.

Millions of us attach these small devices onto our wrists and keep them on constantly, apparently at ease with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Long past are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an estimation of our daily steps. Currently, they can track our sleep quality, stress levels, glucose levels, our recovery score.

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

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the numbers we analyse a true reflection of our actual health? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of measurements and motivational messages just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a quite obsessed with mine," a wearer confesses.

While she loves how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other features "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Before she realised she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was failing to be productive enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a young baby, there's no point to be informed I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware perfectly well."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"It's possible, theoretically, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she says. "I value it for its workout tracking, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Each model of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your vitals and processing your data, but the most use detectors on the underside of the watch.

They typically emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can observe blood flow, identifying your pulse rate. Higher-end devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially aid early diagnosis, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which regularly monitor how normal the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not automatically signal someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a heart problem in the future.

But how to make sense of these readings is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions are added, people may find it hard to fully contextualise their data.

"I remain sceptical that being able to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A health researcher specialising in wearable tech echoes this sentiment. A study into the effect of wearable tech on a set of heart condition patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use medical services".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they spotted a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse went up. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their heart rate increased again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we don't really understand then, understandably, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."