Wearable but not washable

Telluride Daily Planet, Friday, September 26, 2025

We must learn to balance the material wonders of technology with the spiritual demands of our human nature. — John Naisbitt

In the 1970s, which seems almost like the Twilight Zone at this point, I’d often flip through the Seattle Times until I got to the “funnies” page — comics, as our family called them. My interest was strictly in Dick Tracy and Brenda Starr, two separate strips I happened to like. Brenda Starr was a reporter based visually on the movie star Rita Hayworth. As for Dick Tracy, I just liked the phone watch he wore. His wearable, as we’d call them today.

As with much futuristic thinking, we’ve arrived and superseded. We are living in the non-fiction version of science fiction. Recently, after reading that Apple and other companies had released earbuds that simultaneously translate, I really had to stop for a moment and imagine what this might look like in foreign countries as strangers meet and greet and do business, speaking their own languages to each other, without the halting exchanges and gestures we’re all so used to.

The global sense of our village might become more obvious with language barriers worn away by artificial intelligence. But what about our brains, as they work less and less to communicate and more and more, or simply go along for the ride or do what’s easiest?

Today we have whole new classes of wearables — rings, patches, clothing, glasses and bracelets — that attend to everything from fitness and medicine, to communication, to augmented perception, data collection, convenience and entertainment. And within very short amounts of time, we go from hearing about them to seeing them on someone and then on everyone. The race is on between big tech greyhounds to get it out faster and better and the dogs are literally whizzing by as we sit here reading about it. It’s either exhilarating or jarring depending on your take — or some of both.

I have friends, as you probably do, who are very committed to their personal wearables, especially in the realm of health and fitness. One friend swears by her Oura Ring to track sleep quality and is never without it. For her, tracking is paramount to staying on top of things, in order to manage the tools she uses for getting the best sleep possible. It gives her power and confidence.

For another friend who wears an all-purpose tracking device on her wrist, I’ve noted that her mood can easily parallel her overall health score. “I was at 14% this morning,” she confided one day, looking worried. Less power, less confidence? One thing they both share: Now that they are living with live-stream data, it feels hard to go back. And that little ring? That’s just the tip of the iceberg of health and fitness wearables.

It feels like a hundred years ago — in tech-time — that Fitbit (2009) was introduced, let alone the calculator watch of the 70s. Those of us who had actual telephones as our first “technology” like to reminisce about the analog motion and sound of circular dialing or the feel of a curly cord that is somehow connected to a wall and a telephone pole that somehow links us all together.

And now? We are lunging forward with developments in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and XR, the umbrella term for devices using a mix. An example of an XR device would be something like Apple Vision Pro (AR and MR) that allows the user to see a real room overlaid with digital apps or screens or allows them to opt out of reality completely using VR applications.

It’s true that when we read about technology moving at the speed of light, we can feel excited, overwhelmed or fearful; but health metrics seem to be on the easier end of the spectrum to embrace. Many predict that by the year 2035, wearables will become smaller, flatter, self-powering (light or heat), the chips of which may even migrate to computer mice or steering wheels to gather data. With expanded data collection, we may be able to screen for a wide range of chronic conditions and diseases, foretell a cold or analyze body fluids (smart contacts will deliver a whole new subset of data, for example).

Personally, I just bought a cheap digital “dumb watch” for about $30. I wanted to count steps and leave my phone at home and free myself up a bit from the tech creep I know I’m susceptible to. And though it tracks sleep, which is one reason I bought it, I’ve actually been taking it off at night because, for me, the bad report card just isn’t helpful. These kinds of boundaries, too, should be given consideration in our personal health plans.