Will Wearable Tech Unleash a New You in 2016?

Festive overindulgence has probably resulted in the loosening of a few belts this Christmas, and as the guilt begins to sink in, we can be sure our social media timelines will start to feature your friends and family all singing the familiar chorus of “New Year, New Me.”

However if the mobile App charts are anything to go by, it seems many reading this will have a helping hand to get themselves back into shape. I also suspect a quick look around a typical meeting room in the new year will be enough to confirm that wearable tech as officially reached mainstream status as converts discuss the pressure of reaching the elusive 10,000 daily steps target.

Many will instantly compare the Christmas boom of the FitBit fitness tracker as a massive blow to the Apple Watch, but it’s important to remember these are different products aimed at different markets. While some will happily subscribe to the notion that a $400 watch is notifying them what’s happening on their $700 phone, others just want something to track their fitness, and there is nothing wrong with either option, it only depends on your individual requirements.

Qz reported that the fitness tracking app for Fitbit devices jumped a massive 20 places to secure the number one spot on the IOS store on Christmas Day. Well-intended tech fans setup their new wearable gift and promised to move more and eat less in 2016, after they had filled their belly for one last blowout you understand.

Now the hangovers and heavy feeling begin to wear off; it seems that many will put their gifts to good use as they venture into the world of wearable tech and health tracking. It’s easy to see the appeal for the humble wearable fitness tracker, and if you think about it for a moment, it also seems perfectly designed for Christmas.

Very often this is the only time of the year that all your friends and loved ones are in the same room as you eat, drink and make some fantastic memories together. What better gift than something that gently encourages you to get up off the couch after eating and drinking too much and live a healthier lifestyle by replacing bad habits with positive ones to ensure that you can enjoy many more seasonal holidays together.

There have been a few reports questioning the accuracy of many of the devices, but I think these reports in themselves are often misleading and entirely miss the point of a wearable tracker. People buy into the concept of fitness trackers to help motivate themselves to move more and if a wristband that tricks their mind into walking more by dangling a virtual carrot with a sprinkling of gasification then what is the problem?

We meticulously control every aspect of our productivity through a Smörgåsbord of applications and the success of any website is carefully monitored for improvements thanks of Google Analytics. With this in mind, is it really that unthinkable that people are turning to technology to improve their personal lifestyle.

Although, some are just making a few tweaks to their daily routine, there is also a small army of data-obsessed users known as the worried well. The lack of control and uncertainty of life leads some to have their personal dashboards tracking their steps, diet, sleep, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. to make adjustments to their everyday lives to make their body more efficient.

Critics will instantly point out that we should never forget our instincts and understand the importance of listening to your body rather than a spreadsheet. Many also wonder how long until insurance companies want to get their hands on this lucrative data to offer incentives such a cheaper premiums for those that live healthier lifestyles while penalizing those that don’t.

Whether it’s tweaking your daily routine or obsessively monitoring your personal dashboard of wellbeing, it’s clear that there is a technology race that will continue to search for deeper biometric monitoring to provide a greater understanding of the human body.

I wonder if us complex humans are simply over-complicating our lives and neglect to understand that we are unable to measure or quantify the wellness or benefits to ourselves by simply going out with friends, watching a movie, traveling or seeing your first sunset.

Maybe the secret is as simple as moving more and eating less, but it’s the motivation that we all struggle with. If an affordable wristband can offer good old fashioned encouragement when we reach those daily targets then it’s easy to see why they are so popular and how they will help people become a little more active in 2016 and what’s so bad about that?

Will you be using a wearable device to help you replace those old bad habits with a more active lifestyle?