Health Pursuits
The metrics offered by wearable digital technology (although sometimes lacking in precision and reliability) — for those who can afford it — can come to represent perceptions of health or fitness as being of reported numbers, e.g. steps, calories, or hours slept, rather than as a holistic understanding of well-being and ways of life. This can over-ride and erode self-awareness of our health to the point of ignoring important warning signs that require medical attention. It is much like refusing to take an umbrella because the online weather forecast says it is unlikely to rain when our eyes are seeing dark stormy clouds gathering above.
Metrics for a Mind 1 (AI generated image)
Obsessing over tracking goals or relative positions on online peer grids and perceptions of decline in performance can lead to over-exercising, potentially causing strain or injury. A focus on wearable outputs, e.g. ‘watts of power generated’ or ‘time achieved to destination’ during, say, a bicycle ride, represents an absence of ‘presence’ in the world around. In other words instead of appreciating the scenery the metrics had become the event. Constant tracking can lead to a fear of under-performance and an unhealthy fixation on metrics like steps, heart rate, or sleep scores — which can paradoxically disrupt sleep quality as users become anxious about achieving “perfect” sleep.
A Metric Event (AI generated image)
Wearables often link to smartphones, increasing notifications and encouraging overuse of digital devices, contributing to distraction and addiction. The data gathered by wearable technology is potentially of high value in aggregate. It can contain intimate details about a user’s health and habits as well as providing location data at specific times. Such data would be of considerable interest for commercial and insurance-decision purposes. Wearable technologies tend to be expensive and therefore not accessible to under-privileged groups which raises questions of health inequities but — keeping in mind earlier comments — perhaps this particular inequity for the moment works in favour of the underprivileged.
To share this post other people can scan the QR code below directly from your phone screen. Alternatively send the image to them via whatever is your preferred messaging system.
