IT·Science Talk

Unpopular opinion: my smartwatch made me more anxious, not healthier

I wore a smartwatch every day for two years. Steps, heart rate, sleep, stress score, all of it. And at some point I realised I was checking it the way I check social media, constantly, and feeling a little worse each time.

A bad sleep score would put me in a bad mood before I'd even got out of bed. A slightly high resting heart rate after a few drinks had me googling things at midnight. I'm 27 and healthy. None of this was helping.

I took it off a month ago. I walk the same amount, I sleep about the same, and I think about my body a lot less, which feels like a win. I know people with real conditions get a lot from these devices, and I'm not arguing against that. I just wonder how many of us healthy people are buying anxiety on a strap.