I’ll admit it. I’m one of those people with so many apps on my phone that it’s hard for me to keep track of them all. I have to delete apps whenever a new storage-sucking update gets pushed out, and even though I’m constantly charging my phone, it’s perpetually out of battery.

Health and fitness apps haven’t completely overtaken the smattering of music tools, project management apps, and mobile versions of every messaging or social media platform I use, but there are a half dozen still living on my phone—and I use most of them on a regular basis. I’m also on the waitlist for various wearable devices that can track respiration, among other things, and I test out various products when companies lend them to me. Is this wise? Should others follow my technophile lead? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons.

We love apps! Yes we do!

Why do people love these tools so much? Here are some benefits.

Tracking

Whether your goals are incremental or not, being able to keep very specific details of what you’re doing without having to lug around a notebook or attempt to resort to memory can be useful. Besides, even if you can memorize your weight or write down the foods you’ve eaten, apps are more adept at recording very specific details: the number of steps you’ve taken, how many miles you’ve run, or even the quality of your sleep. The level of detail—as well as what is tracked—is breathtaking.

Goal setting

The more specific and detailed your apps are, the better you’re able to tap into the data stored and use it to see where you’re at in terms of your goals. In fact, you may be able to set new goals you hadn’t even thought of for the types of things you hadn’t been tracking. This is even more true about wearables. A new headband I’ve been playing with can track brain signals based on EEG. Other tools can measure respiration.

Gamification

The algorithms aren’t that advanced yet, and usability can be an issue, but apps and devices have come a long way in making things fun. Everyone has different things they’re looking for, whether it’s badges and props from our robotic overlords, the ability to share our data with our friends or on social media (or even compete with others), or just some of the built-in features that can add a bit of fun to an otherwise tedious chore. (My brief affair with jogging began with the Zombies Run! app, which follows a storyline where the user—Runner 5—is a protagonist in an ongoing story divided into bite-sized missions.)

And yet…

If you’re a recovering Luddite hoping that a dose of technology will help you with your goals, beware. Nothing’s as foolproof as it seems. Along with the benefits are many drawbacks.

They’re not exactly accurate

Fitness trackers will never properly be able to track me, because it’s not like I can wear a FitBit or carry my phone around while doing jiu-jitsu. There are many other sports like this that make most popular devices unfeasible.

And even if this weren’t the case, the metrics taken are often inaccurate, since the algorithms are still being developed. (I’ve had mileage counts that were way off.)

Plus, even the best metrics have limitations, as personal trainer Johnny Adamic eloquently discussed in a post for the Daily Beast.

“Here’s my problem with fitness trackers and food calorie counting apps: They all rely on very limited metrics (steps taken, movement when you sleep, calorie tracking, heart rate monitor in some, and distance traveled with the movement) giving you a very skewed analysis about your health,” he wrote, adding that the conversation one can have with his or her body is more important.

There’s too much data

Even if you were to religiously track everything in every app, or have it on at all times, making sense of the data is another story. Most sensors are unable to contextualize the data they gather, and though some applications are in the works, we’re probably a long way off from being able to use our data to guide our actions or understand it contextually. Instead, many people are overwhelmed by data and begin to ignore it. Worse, some people—such as those recovering from eating disorders—find themselves obsessing about data in unhealthy ways. In many cases, wide swaths of data seem to do more damage than good.

Speaking of data…

It’s pretty amazing how much information about ourselves we’re often willing to share with apps and tools, especially since we’re typically unaware of where the data is being stored, who it’s being shared with, and what the long-term implications might be. Could your health insurance company determine when you’re (ahem) getting lucky? Are there other potential dark sides to us keeping a running log of data about our health, location, and lives? Is this something we should be worried about?

So what’s the verdict?

There’s no way to easily advise anyone on what they should or shouldn’t be using, but here are a few tips to keep in mind when making your own decisions.

• What data do you need to track? Is your exact amount of sleep very important, or do you really need to get specific with the amount of mileage you cycle or run each day? If so, an app would be appropriate. Otherwise, you can stick to your old school monitoring options (such as a notebook).
• Will you actually track it? An app or fitness tracker is only as good as the person who uses it. If you’re dedicated to either having it on you whenever needed or entering the data it requires regularly, you’ll be far better off than if it’s something you only plan on doing when you remember to.
• Are you feeling stagnant? If so, a new tool may very well help you focus on a different goal, get back into your groove, or at least mix things up a bit.

Apps, trackers, and wearable devices aren’t the be all and end all of health and fitness—but they can be helpful in certain circumstances. Don’t be afraid to experiment. You can even use tools temporarily for a specific purpose or goal, and then move on once they’ve served their purpose—or if you’re not as diligent at tracking data as you wish, or the data being tracked isn’t as useful as you’d thought it would be.