Could I Be Dependent on My Fitness Tracker?

A sense of nervous excitement. Apparent is the frosty air exhaled by my rivals as they execute the "starting line" wiggle on the start line.

A swift twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. It's almost time...

Hold on. I have to start my tracker. The same goes for the person beside me.

The person waiting expresses impatience. I'm not moving until… there! GPS ready, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's difficult to find a arm without a wearable on it. And it's not just us runners who use them.

It's a booming, multi-billion pound market. Companies like Samsung Galaxy dominate, featuring an extensive selection of different devices to cater to a variety of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the watch you go for, costs can start from a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

"It drives me insane, it's impossible to relax."

"It provides solace… It acts as a companion supporting me."

"Stop telling me I've had a poor sleep."

A small sample of the responses I've had from like-minded tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on mine? Right now, annoying. It's reporting I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the foliage along my route are disrupting my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us attach these compact devices onto our wrists and keep them on 24/7, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Gone are the days when we used them solely to give us an idea of our step count. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

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

But can they do what they advertise? And are the data points we obsess over a true reflection of reality? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of metrics and motivational messages just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I become a bit obsessed with mine," one user reveals.

While she loves how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a significant period.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was not being energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I have a infant, I don't need to be notified I'm tired," she says. "I know that perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"I could, I suppose, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she says. "I love it for its workout tracking, but I'm unsure whether the additional features it can now do is possibly too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your bodily functions and processing your data, but the most use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They commonly shine small, green LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor capillary action, detecting your BPM. More advanced devices analyse changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to assess your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is irregular impulses in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

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 vulnerable of a heart problem in the long term.

But how to interpret these readings is complex. The expert fears that as additional features are introduced, people may find it hard to fully understand their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that having the capacity to monitor so many metrics is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A health researcher focusing on wearable tech concurs. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a set of heart condition patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined 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 heart rate increased. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their reading increased again.

"Upon viewing numbers about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."