These days, there’s a way to track nearly every aspect of fitness and health. You can track your calories, your sleep, your heart rate and the number of steps you take every day. You can track the number of miles you’ve run, biked or hiked.
Often, tracking products advertise health benefits. Ads for fitness-tracking watches like Garmin and Fitbit urge users to “tune into your body,” “unlock human performance,” and “find your energy.” The basic idea is that knowing more about our behavior will lead us to make healthier choices.
But some scholars are beginning to question that assumption. Do health metrics actually make us healthier? Or do they have unintended consequences?
Digital Tracking Is Mostly Helpful
Wearable fitness trackers burst into the mainstream in the late 2000s, when companies like Fitbit and Nike introduced monitors that could sync up with computers and, later, smart phones. Since then, several independent researchers have launched inquiries into how these devices influence physical health, psychological well-being, and behavior.
