For 86% of users in Romania, smartwatch has made real changes in behavior. But while the promise of a healthier life is confirmed in figures, questions are also related to balance, autonomy and the pressure of being always “in form”.
Smart watches improve our life. Photo: Frepik
The results of the European Study on health behavior 20251, conducted by Ipsos at the request of Huawei, show that smart watches play a transforming role in managing the health of Europeans. Over 80% of smartwatch users (86% of Romanian respondents) reported positive behavioral changes, including increasing physical activity and improving sleep, highlighting the transition from passive health monitoring to its active management.
Almost half of the Romanian respondents (45%) say they started to move more often, 44% pay more attention to the quality of sleep, 22% went to a medical check-up after alerts received on the clock and only 14% use the exclusive smartwatch as an accessory, without resorting to the functions of health and physical activities.
The survey shows that most Europeans (78%) recognize the connection between lifestyle and health, demonstrating an increasing awareness of the importance of proactive management. Among the smartwatch users, 80% say they have improved their behaviors, influenced by the health information generated by the devices. Moreover, the regular monitoring of some essential indicators has strengthened their commitment to physical exercises and sleep optimization.
“The data they collect are pure gold for anyone who wants to change their lifestyle”
“I am a declared fan of wearables. I already have two devices (a clock and a ring) that helps me to be more careful how I sleep, how much I organize my day. However, sometimes you get to feel more tired just because you tell you the clock that you have not slept well, but the data I collect. It is based on this data. Treatment ”, confesses Doina Vîlceanu, marketing director Content Speed.
Benefit or pressure? Psychologists see the other face of the screen too
Andra Ionescu, clinical psychologist, confirms the positive impact of these digital tools: “Smart watches transform not only the lifestyle, but also our relationship with our own body.” They offer motivation and a feeling of control in a society that is facing sedentary lifestyle, lack of sleep and burnout. However, it draws attention to a more difficult to detect side effect: the continuous pressure to perform. “Smart watches transform not only the lifestyle, but also our relationship with their own body. On the one hand, they offer motivation, immediate feedback and a feeling of control: people feel more aware of their habits, more encouraged to move, to sleep better or to take care of health. Pressure, the body becomes a continuous management project, and the performance is quantified in steps, pulse and hours of sleep. she explains.
A fine line between self-monitoring and obsession
In the office, says the specialist, he begins to see people who feel outdated by their own digitally imposed objectives or who feel that they no longer belong, that they are constantly “pursued”. “Basically, it becomes a thin line between healthy self-monitoring and the obsession of control. In this equation, the balance remains the key: it is important that the technology is an ally, not a continuous evaluator of personal value. I think the first step is to put the human body again in the center of our relationship with technology, not the other way. People use the clock as a guide, not as a performance evaluator.”, Explains Andra Ionescu.
In his opinion, we need digital breaks. “The clock should not work 24/7. Disconnection, and physical, and psychological, it is essential for mental health. You can intentionally set moments without monitoring: a walk without steps, a sleep without analysis, a day when you do not check anything. And, most importantly, not to mention, how do I feel, how do I feel good?this continues.
The clock that breaks us from ourselves
In turn, Alina Anghelescu, family psychotherapist, says: “This digitalization of self-care raises essential questions, often overlooked. We are not talking only about technology, but about our relationship with our own body, autonomy, inner silence, we talk, in fact, about the emotional literacy of each of us. The smartwatch does not encourage us to listen to us,” sleep “inefficient” or when the pulse is high. Over time, a profound phenomenon appears: we are alienated from our own somatic experience. Here comes the role of psychoeducation, to teach ourselves to stop and to ask ourselves: what do I feel? I’m tired? Is it okay? What does my body tell me today? What do I need, here and now? ”.
Disconnect as a reconnection act
Otherwise, warns the psychotherapist, we risk becoming addicted to external data, who get to decide in our place as we feel. “The answer does not come from the inside, from the message of the body, but from a graph or a score displayed on the screen. This is, in fact, a form of disconnection by itself, in which what we feel is no longer the central criterion, but what” came out “. And this dependence on technological feedback becomes, over time, a subtle form of control: it promises freedom, but often gives birth to frustration, guilt, self-shares and distrust in their own bodily signals. The body has no notifications. Has signals. And these signals need to be listened to, not corrected ”, says Alina Anghelescu
In fact, she points out that technology can be a valuable ally, but when it becomes the only compass, we lose contact with the interior compass. “In systemic psychotherapy, we know that healing begins with the return to itself, to our own body, to the ability to feel, to mirror ourselves, not only to measure. In therapy, we do not treat the clock as a problem, but as a symbol of a deeper dynamics: the relationship with the self. Enough. does not display a maximum score“she concludes.
