While these addictive behaviors are obvious signs that someone might have an unhealthy relationship with their fitness tracker, it becomes more serious — and even clinical — when this tunnel vision approach causes wearers to "try to make healthier choices, only to spiral into negative thought patterns, obsession, anxiety, guilt, shame, and disordered behaviors like overexercising, restrictive eating, binging, and purging to hit their goals," says Alissa Rumsey, MS, founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness and author of Unapologetic Eating.
And while many smartwatch users see sharing stats and workout results with friends as a form of healthy competition, Dr. Lembke notes that this type of behavior can actually be a contributor to depression: "It perpetuates this feeling of never being good enough, because with social media, not only are you competing against yourself and friends, but with the rest of the world."
[Identifying and acknowledging their devices' blind spots can help wearers navigate their relationships with them better — these watches are only giving them a snapshot into their health, not the full picture. Because despite upgrades and innovation with new models, these watches predominately base your health assessment on your height and weight, and can lack mindfulness when creating a user's "ideal" calorie and step goals.
While Fitbit did not respond to requests for comment for this article, a rep from Apple pointed to existing articles about how the watches recommend calorie goals for users. Apple Watches attempt to provide a more accurate picture by also factoring in age and gender and relying heavily on users calibrating their devices, which the brand claims improves the accuracy of your stats (distance, pace, and calorie intake) and helps your watch learn your fitness level and stride to improve accuracy when GPS is limited or unavailable.]
Mia, a Los Angeles-based 35-year-old, stopped wearing her smartwatch altogether after her once restorative yoga class turned into a daily stressor. She continuously checked her watch to ensure she was burning more calories than in previous sessions. If she noticed her calorie burn was lower, she would instantly engage in negative self-talk.
The data these watches provide can be useful to a point, but when you become overly fixated on numbers and get preoccupied with counting everything and anything is when you know it's become problematic. “If your data tracking comes at the expense of your social life, increases your stress levels, diminishes your relationships with friends and family, you can hit all the tracking 'goals' you want and still not be healthy," explains Rumsey.
