The Over-Optimization Backlash
When tracking the body becomes another thing the body has to do
Reading: Four Wellness Themes for 2026 · Global Wellness Summit
The ring tells you the sleep was poor. The app tells you the steps were short. The scale tells you the number, and the other app tells you what the number means. Somewhere in the middle of all that data, the actual evening got eaten.
The backlash forming now is not anti-data. It is anti-substitution — the recognition that measurement has quietly replaced experience for a lot of people, and that the body being tracked has started to feel like a project rather than a place to live. The new conversation is about putting the instruments down sometimes and seeing what the body says without them.
A small permission, and a useful one.