Is It Possible I'm Dependent on This Wearable Device?

A sense of nervous excitement. Apparent is the cold breath exhaled by my rivals as they perform the "starting line" jiggle on the starting line.

A swift twitch of the hips.

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

Wait a second. I have to start my device. The same goes for the person alongside me.

The person in the line sighs. I'm not moving until… done! Connection established, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's difficult to spot a wrist without a fitness tracker on it. And this isn't only us participants who wear them.

It's a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Companies like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, featuring an extensive range of different models to suit a range of lifestyles. According to how high tech the model you choose, costs can vary between £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It makes me crazy, I can't stop checking."

"It reassures me… It's like a supporter supporting me."

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

Just some of the reactions people have shared from other device users when I ask what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? At this moment, annoying. It's indicating I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the foliage I'm passing under are interfering with my location tracking.

A vast number of us attach these compact gadgets onto our wrists and use them 24/7, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're constantly recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them only to give us an idea of our daily steps. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, heart rate, glucose levels, our body battery.

It's difficult to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.

But can they do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we analyse a true reflection of our actual health? Do they boost our daily wellness, or do the avalanche of measurements and cheerleading alerts just increase our everyday anxiety?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I become a a little obsessed with mine," an individual reveals.

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

Prior to discovering she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was not being energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch keeps telling her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I've got a young baby, there's no point to be told I'm tired," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether the myriad other functions it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

How Do They Work?

Each model of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of monitoring your vitals and interpreting your data, but the vast bulk use sensors on the back of the watch.

They commonly shine small, green LED lights onto your arm which can monitor pulsation, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to assess your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually aid early diagnosis, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

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

But how to make sense of these readings is complicated. The expert concerns that as more functions are added, people may struggle to fully understand their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in patient behaviour concurs. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "had a higher tendency to use healthcare resources".

She noted a vicious circle with her patients - they saw a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their BPM rose. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their reading rose further.

"If we see data about ourselves that we lack context for then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We check, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."