Am I Addicted to This Fitness Tracker?

A sense of feeling of anticipation. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my rivals as they execute the "pre-race" shuffle on the beginning point.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I must adjust my device. The same goes for the guy alongside me.

The person behind us tuts. I'm not moving until… done! Connection established, I'm off.

In the mele, it's difficult to see a wrist without a wearable on it. And it's not just us runners who rely on them.

We're witnessing a explosive, multi-billion dollar sector. Companies like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, all offering an extensive selection of different devices to cater to a spectrum of needs. Depending on how feature-packed the device you choose, prices can start from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It drives me insane, I can't switch off."

"It comforts me… It acts as a friend supporting me."

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

A small sample of the responses I've had from fellow smartwatch wearers when I question what they think of theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? Right now, frustrating. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, making me wonder whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are interfering with my satellite signal.

Millions of us attach these small gadgets onto our arms and use them all day and night, seemingly at ease with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Gone are the days when we used them only to give us an estimation of our step count. Now, they can measure our nightly rest, stress levels, glucose levels, our VO2 max.

It's tricky to find a physical metric they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the numbers we analyse a true reflection of reality? Do they enhance our overall health, or do the plethora of metrics and motivational messages just increase our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a a little preoccupied with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she appreciates how her device tracks her exercise, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently productive enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I am caring for a six-month old, I don't need to be told I've not slept," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just stop wearing it?

"I could, perhaps, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she says. "I love it for its fitness insights, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is perhaps too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

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

They usually shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor blood flow, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to gauge your nervous system activity.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the continuously improving tech could actually aid early diagnosis, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "worried well".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can perform 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 abnormal impulses in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the future.

But how to make sense of these readings is complex. The expert worries that as further capabilities are incorporated, people may struggle to fully understand their data.

"I remain sceptical that having the capacity to monitor so much data is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A health researcher specialising in patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a set of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use doctor's time".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they spotted a alarming metric on their watch. They felt anxious. Their heart rate went up. They got more worried. They looked a second time, and their heart rate rose further.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We check, we obsess - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."