A troubling phrase keeps surfacing in tech conversations: 'getting credit.' From dead Apple Watches ruining family walks to Google expanding features because users demand workout validation, the fitness tracking industry has created a psychological dependency that's turning health tools into anxiety generators. Victoria Song's latest investigation exposes how our obsession with digital validation is fundamentally changing our relationship with exercise.
The fitness tracking industry has a confession problem, and it's hiding in plain sight. Apple Watch users pause family walks when their device dies. Google engineers expand automatic tracking because users 'want credit' for forgotten workouts. Garmin devotees religiously chant: 'If it doesn't track, it doesn't count.' What started as helpful health monitoring has morphed into something far more insidious - a psychological dependency that's redefining our relationship with exercise itself.
Victoria Song, senior reviewer at The Verge, has been tracking this disturbing trend across the wearables landscape. In her latest Optimizer newsletter, she exposes how the phrase 'getting credit' has become the smoking gun of an industry that's lost sight of its original mission. 'Companies want their devices to be addictive,' Song writes, highlighting a fundamental tension between user engagement and actual health outcomes.
The evidence is mounting that our digital wellness tools are creating new forms of health anxiety. Research published in PMC found that smartwatches sparked anxiety in atrial fibrillation patients, with one participant performing 916 EKGs over a single year. The compulsive behavior wasn't driven by medical necessity - it was fueled by the device's constant availability and the psychological need for validation.
This isn't just about individual users developing unhealthy habits. The entire wearables ecosystem has been architected around engagement metrics that mirror social media's most problematic features. Streaks reward consistency over recovery. Scores turn health into homework assignments. Activity rings create arbitrary goals that ignore individual physiology and circumstances.
Google's recent expansion of automatic activity tracking for the Pixel Watch 4 perfectly illustrates how companies are doubling down on validation rather than addressing the root psychological issues. Instead of questioning why users feel they need 'credit' for every movement, the industry continues building more sophisticated tracking systems to feed these compulsions.
The scoring systems that companies tout as user-friendly innovations are particularly problematic. Song describes how these metrics 'trick my brain into thinking I'm back at school trying to pass a test.' The psychological shift from intrinsic motivation - exercising because it feels good or improves health - to extrinsic validation through device scores represents a fundamental corruption of wellness goals.
