To Track or Not Track: Are Fitness Trackers Worth it?

If you remember 2016, you may have witnessed the wildfire that was fitness trackers. With the ever-evolving rise of fitness trends, fitness trackers scratched a very particular itch of the time.

Masses toted their high-tech trackers comparing data and technology. Relishing in any questions that meant they would have a chance to attest their adoration for their favorite devices.

Why People Love Them

Any way you put it, the technology behind fitness trackers is evidence that we at some point reached at least somebody’s dreams of the “future” of fitness. Aside from increased motivation by the daily presence, sophisticated trackers come equipped with some pretty useful capabilities.

Counting steps, tracking vitals, calories, and monitoring sleep is a few popular functions. These insights into the potency of our efforts toward our physical health created an area of fitness that was quantifiable without having to do pulls ups to prove it. Instead, users could upload their data, share,  and tell.

Fitness trackers earned the reputation of being a luxury accessory that marked a particular status. An industry known for its grit and grime experienced a shift into the tech-inclined marketplace and quickly became a commodity that signified a level of commitment to one’s fitness.

Why People Don’t

The mark of a fitness staple is its ability to withstand incoming trends and maintain popular use, generation after generation. Like many fitness trends, trackers arrived quickly and furiously, only to hit a brick wall.

Of course, trackers are still widely purchased and celebrated, and companies like Fitbit and Apple are struggling to compete for remaining consumers buying into the hype. At the same time, they are struggling to pull numbers.

Why the decline in popularity? Joshua Fruhlinger of Digital Trends grapples with the notion that for him, the loss of interest followed a parallel experience to the societal explosion of tracking devices. He describes being all too enthralled in his technology, staying updated on releases, then a lack of interest, and desire to do away with them all together.

He experienced challenges enjoying his exercise and found himself zeroed in on details that ultimately were unimportant to him. He specifically detests the will for such devices to remain on the scene and refers to the craze behind them as “a robotic race.”

GR8 If You Say It Is

With an extensive range of products out there, finding a fitness tracker that caters to your specific goals should be an interesting prospect, and likely a successful one.

If the question is whether or not fitness trackers are worth it, the counter-question is: Are they worth what exactly? What a fitness tracker provides, be it extra motivation, awareness of heart health, or staying on trend with gym trends, is up to the individual.