Well Actually: Have we reached peak tracking?

In her 2013 novel The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri wrote: “In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists.” Beautiful. Then again, that was before people could install poop tracking cameras on their toilets.

This week, two stories look at the ever growing, ever-more-intrusive business of health tracking.

Alaina Demopoulos wrote about poop tracking cameras: devices that take pictures of your stool and analyze your gut health. Our bowel movements can tell us a great deal about our health, say dieticians, but you don’t need a $600 commode camera – you can just use your eyes.

Toilet surveillance technology may not be a high priority for you, but everyone wants to sleep better. Bianca Nogrady dove into the “boom industry” of sleep monitoring devices – rings, headbands, wristbands and under-mattress devices that claim to help track the duration and quality of one’s slumber. Experts say these tools have helped raise awareness about the importance of sleep, but there’s one issue: the harder you try to sleep, the harder it is to do. “We can be creating some problems over people becoming too obsessive,” said sleep researcher Dr Hannah Scott.

In both of these cases, it’s unclear who exactly owns all your health data and how they can use it. So I guess the unknown does persist.

For me, blood pressure is similar to global shipping routes or tax law: I know it’s extremely important and has a big impact on my life, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it. Fortunately, Phil Daoust can. In the latest installment of Fit for ever, Phil looks at the role blood pressure plays in our health, and how one can manage it. High blood pressure over a long period of time can weaken arteries, damage internal organs, and contribute to “blockages, bulging, bleeding and bursts”.

There are a number of commonsense health practices that can help one lower their blood pressure, some of which are easier said than done:

Here are the guidelines for:

• Cutting down on smoking and drinking: ideally, cut these out altogether.
• Exercising more: both aerobic and strength training are important.
• Consuming less salt: cap intake at 6mg a day.
• Reducing stress: doctors suggest meditation, yoga and breathwork.

I spent one dreadful week with a Friend pendant – a wearable AI companion that listens to everything you say. I went into the experiment open to the possibility that the Friend might be fun, or at least useful. Instead, I found it boring and sycophantic. Also, wearing a glowing AI recording device makes people around you extremely uncomfortable.

AI researchers told me they’re concerned about technology that aims to replace human friendship rather than augment it. “If you converse more and more with the AI instead of going to talk to your parents or friends, the social fabric degrades,” said Dr Pat Pataranutaporn. “You will not develop the skills to go and talk to real humans.”

A rising number of young couples in the US say they moved in together sooner because of high housing costs, Alaina Demopoulos reports. “I had a mental breakdown about the finances of living alone,” said one 25-year-old. “It doesn’t feel like the world is made for single people.” Splitting expenses saves money, but can also make separation more difficult if the relationship sours. “You could end up financially tied with someone you don’t actually want to be with,” said social psychologist Dr Justin Lehmiller.