By Lauren Said-Moorhouse
for CNN
(CNN) — Wearables have become a popular way of tracking our daily workout, eating habits and sleep cycles. But for one man — it had an extra feature — it tracked the precise moment his heart broke.
It was a normal Saturday for Israeli student Koby Soto. The 28-year-old juggles a few things — studying at law school as well as work at Guesty, a Y Combinator-backed startup he co-founded with his twin brother that helps customers manage their Airbnb properties. He was due to take a break from studying to “chill out” with his boyfriend when he received an unexpected call.
Out of the blue, his boyfriend said he was calling it quits. Soto thought things were going great, they’d been seeing each other for a while and the relationship was “pretty intense” — they met almost everyday. Unfortunately the feeling wasn’t mutual.
Blindsided, Soto did what most of us have done — he tried to focus on other things and spent the rest of the day in a funk. It wasn’t until he was tossing and turning in bed that night trying to sleep, his heart rate noticeably heightened in his emotional state, that he turned to his Fitbit app on a whim.
What he saw stunned him: There, in vivid color, was his breakup tracked through his heart-rate monitor.
The breakup call came in around 12.30 pm and the graph showed Soto’s immediate distress as his beats per minute jumped up from 72 to 88. It then remained elevated for the rest of the day, peaking at 118.
Normally, Soto works out three times a week doing mostly gymnastics — and his Fitbit, a wearable fitness band that allows health enthusiasts to track their daily activities, has become part of the furniture — he barely notices it’s there.
A self professed “geek,” Soto thought that, while the breakup was still raw, it was interesting to see his emotions mapped out, and so he decided to share it online.
“I put it up on Hacker News because I thought geeks would think it was interesting,” he told CNN. “I thought 20 people might like it.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to break the internet, I mean seriously, it’s everywhere.”
Soto was overwhelmed by the response. One user replied offering to date him instead. Another pointed out that at least he wouldn’t have to go to the gym that day. Countless more sent messages of support, virtual hugs and positive tips for moving on.
So powerful was his single tweet, that some even choose to reveal similar instances of their own emotionally-charged moments.
“Everyone has been really sweet and really supportive. I tried to write as many people as I could.
“I’ve had to shut down the notifications because it got crazy. But people have been really awesome,” Soto said.
“It’s surprising (that people have been so nice) because you would expect that (with) the internet, they would be more cynical and bitchy about it … (it’s) really cool — you can’t really be so sad when you have so much support.”
The-CNN-Wire
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