Am I Addicted to My Wearable Device?

An atmosphere of building tension. I can see the chilled vapour emanating from my competitors as they execute the "starting line" shuffle on the beginning point.

A rapid flick of the hips.

I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I have to adjust my tracker. The same goes for the person beside me.

The person behind us sighs. I refuse to go until… yes! GPS ready, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's hard to see a person without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us participants who wear them.

We're witnessing a explosive, multi-billion dollar market. Brands like Apple Watch are prevalent, each with an wide array of different versions to suit a range of budgets. Based on how advanced the watch you select, prices can start from £100 to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, I can't switch off."

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

"I wish it wouldn't say I've had a restless night."

Just some of the responses I've had from other device users when I inquire what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? Right now, frustrating. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the trees along my route are disrupting my location tracking.

Millions of us attach these small gadgets onto our wrists and use them 24/7, seemingly at ease with the fact they're continuously recording us.

Long past are the days when we depended on them only to give us an estimation of our pedometer reading. Today, they can analyse our sleep quality, blood pressure, glucose levels, our recovery score.

It's difficult to find a health indicator they aren't designed to measure.

But can they do what they say they do? And are the numbers we scrutinise a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

"I become a quite fixated with mine," an individual confesses.

While she loves how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently active enough. Now, the watch insists her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a six-month old, I don't need to be told my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I suppose I could, I suppose, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I love it for its fitness insights, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your bodily functions and processing your data, but the majority use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They typically project small, green LED lights onto your arm which can detect blood flow, detecting your heartbeat. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to gauge your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a heart problem in the long term.

But how to understand these readings is complicated. The expert fears that as additional features are incorporated, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that being able to monitor so many things is such a positive development," he says.

A professor studying patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a set of individuals with health issues suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced greater stress and were "had a higher tendency to use doctor's time".

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

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."