I am bookmarking this so I can share it in the future with my therapy clients. I've been trying to tell clients for YEARS that their fitness trackers aren't helping them, but people are so skeptical and dismissive because trackers have become so ubiquitous. My other pet peeve as a therapist is people telling me they have insomnia because their tracker tells them they're not getting enough "deep sleep" or underestimates the number of hours they are sleeping. I have heard some version of this countless times: "I thought I got eight hours last night, but the tracker said I only got five. How can I get more sleep?" I question why they believe the feedback from a flawed device instead of their own perception. The worry this creates absolutely contributes to an increased sense of fatigue. It's like their watch is gaslighting them, but most people refuse to take them off.
Thanks for sharing that. I have had so many questions about the sleep trackers for the same reason. This pressure to optimize according to a device/app can be so damaging and take us farther away from wellbeing.
Your example reminds me of some research I read about exercise and perceptions of what is "enough." One of the studies had hotel housekeepers wear fitness trackers, and they were randomly divide into two groups. Even though everyone was doing the same job, those who were told their physically demanding work was giving them enough exercise had improved health markers two weeks later while the ones who were told they weren't getting enough had things like higher BP. I thought it was fascinating.
Thanks for this. You bring up so many important points. I’ve drawn a line at smart watches for my kids and teens, for all the reasons you’ve mentioned. They haven’t always agreed with me, but I hope one day they see why!
The marketing around these products makes them seem so amazing and cool. It can be so hard to say no.
I do know families who find smart watches to be a great alternative to a cell phone for younger kids who need to communicate with parents for certain logistics, going between households, etc. (and I think it's important for parents to take that extra step to adjust the settings so kids aren't getting the harmful calorie information, etc.).
I unintentionally lost weight during an internship at the public defender because I went out to eat lunch daily with the whole office and then ate smaller dinners because I was too tired to cook that summer. Then my friend told me about My Fitness Pal and the food tracking led me down a very bad path. I don’t do the math now but 3 years of tracking put a lot of numbers in my head.
My MIL has never really talked about weight but she shared an old journal with me when we were doing “Granny preschool” during the pandemic with lesson plans for each letter of the alphabet that had her daily exercise and weight in it at the front from 2013 and I have never been able to forget she had written (bad) when she gained 5 lbs.
at one point she asked if I thought my 8 yo would want an Apple Watch and I said no. I could see him getting way too competitive with it, we already deal with the Duolingo streak every day!
So sorry you had to go through that tracking/numbers experience. It really is so hard to turn off that mindset.
Hearing stories of older generations keeping food/weight journals is such a powerful example of the effects of diet marketing, especially in women’s magazines from an earlier era.
I inherited several of my grandmothers diaries when she passed… at 88 almost everyday was filled with notes of how much she ate, how many calories, etc. It made me so incredibly sad to know she lived her whole life this way… but also made me even more determined to break that
I haven't seen much written about the EMF piece of it. My understanding is these devices all fall well under the allowable safe exposure limits, though I can understand being concerned about wearing something like this on your body 24/7, especially for children.
I am bookmarking this so I can share it in the future with my therapy clients. I've been trying to tell clients for YEARS that their fitness trackers aren't helping them, but people are so skeptical and dismissive because trackers have become so ubiquitous. My other pet peeve as a therapist is people telling me they have insomnia because their tracker tells them they're not getting enough "deep sleep" or underestimates the number of hours they are sleeping. I have heard some version of this countless times: "I thought I got eight hours last night, but the tracker said I only got five. How can I get more sleep?" I question why they believe the feedback from a flawed device instead of their own perception. The worry this creates absolutely contributes to an increased sense of fatigue. It's like their watch is gaslighting them, but most people refuse to take them off.
Thanks for sharing that. I have had so many questions about the sleep trackers for the same reason. This pressure to optimize according to a device/app can be so damaging and take us farther away from wellbeing.
Your example reminds me of some research I read about exercise and perceptions of what is "enough." One of the studies had hotel housekeepers wear fitness trackers, and they were randomly divide into two groups. Even though everyone was doing the same job, those who were told their physically demanding work was giving them enough exercise had improved health markers two weeks later while the ones who were told they weren't getting enough had things like higher BP. I thought it was fascinating.
Thanks for this. You bring up so many important points. I’ve drawn a line at smart watches for my kids and teens, for all the reasons you’ve mentioned. They haven’t always agreed with me, but I hope one day they see why!
The marketing around these products makes them seem so amazing and cool. It can be so hard to say no.
I do know families who find smart watches to be a great alternative to a cell phone for younger kids who need to communicate with parents for certain logistics, going between households, etc. (and I think it's important for parents to take that extra step to adjust the settings so kids aren't getting the harmful calorie information, etc.).
I unintentionally lost weight during an internship at the public defender because I went out to eat lunch daily with the whole office and then ate smaller dinners because I was too tired to cook that summer. Then my friend told me about My Fitness Pal and the food tracking led me down a very bad path. I don’t do the math now but 3 years of tracking put a lot of numbers in my head.
My MIL has never really talked about weight but she shared an old journal with me when we were doing “Granny preschool” during the pandemic with lesson plans for each letter of the alphabet that had her daily exercise and weight in it at the front from 2013 and I have never been able to forget she had written (bad) when she gained 5 lbs.
at one point she asked if I thought my 8 yo would want an Apple Watch and I said no. I could see him getting way too competitive with it, we already deal with the Duolingo streak every day!
So sorry you had to go through that tracking/numbers experience. It really is so hard to turn off that mindset.
Hearing stories of older generations keeping food/weight journals is such a powerful example of the effects of diet marketing, especially in women’s magazines from an earlier era.
I inherited several of my grandmothers diaries when she passed… at 88 almost everyday was filled with notes of how much she ate, how many calories, etc. It made me so incredibly sad to know she lived her whole life this way… but also made me even more determined to break that
Oh, wow. It really is sad how much of people's lives have been stolen by diet culture.
Ha -- yes that was pretty dark!!!
It really captured this sort of Twilight Zone crossroads we're all at right now.
… another risk, the disruption of a child’s natural electrical balance, they are being bathed in emfs
I haven't seen much written about the EMF piece of it. My understanding is these devices all fall well under the allowable safe exposure limits, though I can understand being concerned about wearing something like this on your body 24/7, especially for children.
https://arthurfirstenberg.substack.com/p/emfpolicybrief
https://bioinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/BioInitiativeReport-RF-Color-Charts.pdf
Thanks for sharing these.