How wearable technology is boosting our consciousness around health

Maintaining an active and balanced lifestyle is an important factor in living a long and healthy life. While in the past many of us relied on simply watching what we ate and jumping on the bathroom scales every now and then, today there is a wide world of wearable devices that can help us take a more sophisticated and personalised approach to our health. 

What are wearable devices?

Wearable technologies combine cutting edge software with staple everyday accessories. Some popular examples over recent years have included wrist bands that measure our heart rates, jewellery that counts how many steps we take each day and sunglasses that capture photos and then share them to social media. Each of these products take advantage of the “internet of things”, a technology trend in which information collected by smart devices is shared with the user wirelessly, most often relayed through a smart phone app. 

Today, the most popular wearable technology is the smart watch, which combines many of these features into one small and fashionable device. 

What health features do smart watches have?

The term “smart watch” might be selling these wearables short. They can also receive and make calls, tell you the weather forecast, and some models can even give GPS directions. However, they really shine when it comes to making their wearers more conscious of their health. Devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 and Apple Watch Series 6 can:

  • Measure heart rate
  • Track steps 
  • Record workouts 
  • Time intervals for training
  • Count the number of flights of stairs climbed 
  • Facilitate mindful breathing exercises
  • Schedule sleep and wake up reminders
  • Send reminders to stand up and be active
  • And more…

How do smart watch features raise consciousness around health?

When brought together this information can be visualised as real time data or as helpful graphs that plot historical data over periods of time. Most crucially, this data enables you to track your own personal health progress, for example, seeing how many steps were achieved today versus this time last week or seeing how many work outs were done this month compared to last month.

By capturing this information, smart watches can be used to discover personal health insights which trigger reminders to stay active throughout the day. For example, did you know that sitting down for long periods of time can reduce the benefits of an active lifestyle? Because a smart watch is constantly gathering data it can reveal how many consecutive hours you spent sitting down at work and as a result can send you reminders to stand up more often. While wearable technologies may seem like fancy accessories, really they help to transform data into insights, and insights into actions. 

The more that you use a smart watch, the more it can tell you about your own habits, which leads to greater awareness and consciousness of your overall state of health. Smart watches, along with seeking proper medical advice from qualified health professionals, can help to contribute to a more active and enjoyable lifestyle. 

Browse our range of wearable devices today. 

Connected Watch plan, compatible phone and eligible Optus SIM plan required for some of the uses featured here.