In the coming decade your clothes could tell you it’s going to rain, your sneakers could send a tweet when you skip a workout, and your work badge could tell your boss you need a break.

An overwhelming majority of experts say wearable technologies like these, which will gather and utilize all sorts of data, will be popular and largely beneficial by 2025, a new report from the Pew Research Center found. The emergence of wearables will change everything from how we shop to how we raise our kids.

But, the biggest changes could be in our health.

Experts, for example, predict wearable technology could give consumers far more control over their health by providing a rich and steady stream of personal health data, everything from blood pressure to glucose levels. Consumers could use these new tools to monitor, analyze and ultimately manage their health care, according to Larry Press, a writer, consultant, blogger and part-time professor cited in the report.

“The biggest impact from the Internet of Things will probably be in healthcare, where more data can enable better diagnostics and treatment. This will likely lead to better health care services that allow individuals to manage their own care, often with less direct intervention by doctors. Predictive analytics will help provide users the right information at the right time,” Daniel Castro, director of the Center for Data Innovation, also said in the report.

Learn more about wearables and sensors at our next Tech in Focus event on Tuesday, June 24th. A panel of experts will discuss the design, implementation, challenges, and future of the technologies. They will explore the technical and consumer sides of the sensor market that promises to change the world around us.

Wearable technology is already changing our world. In Seattle, Artefact designers are working on a concept that would help people with epilepsy manage the chronic condition. Its Dialog concept would collect environmental, biometric and user-entered data about a seizure. A smartphone app would analyze all this data and identify potential reasons for a seizure. Armed with this information, an individual and an entire caregiving network could take steps to avoid or moderate seizures.

“The goal is to help them manage their condition,” said Emilia Palaveeva, head of marketing and communication at the Seattle-based technology design and innovation consultancy. “No one wants to be defined by the condition they have.” (Artefact works on a range of wearable technology. Check out its website for details.)

A future full of powerful wearable technology is not all bright. This tech gear simply may not become that popular, some experts suggested. The products also will raise concerns about privacy and even etiquette.

“There are tremendous upsides of networked devices for special-purpose roles, but, in my humble opinion, not for benefiting everyday life in a revolutionary way. Compare the Samsung watch and Google Glass to calculator watches of the 1970s — useful proof of concept, but more of a fad than a trend, of interest to a few, and ridiculed by many others,” a co-founder of a consultancy that works on Internet technology and biomedical engineering said in the report.

These devices also threaten to widen the digital divide between those who have access to new technology, both in the United States and the developing world, and those who don’t.

“Put this in context with someone struggling to get by on a daily basis — in the US or in other countries: what these devices primarily signify is a growing gulf between the tech haves and have-nots,” K.G. Schneider, a university librarian, said in the report, adding he still views the emerging technology as interesting and important.

Overall, though, experts envision a world of sensor-rich shirts, glasses, and wristbands, a high-tech wardrobe of good, bad and plain ugly wearable technology.

“It will have widespread beneficial effects, along with widespread negative effects,” Justin Reich, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, said in the report.

“Everything that you love and hate about smartphones will be more so.”

Further Reading:

• “Seattle’s boom in wearable technology.” Seattle Business, 5/14.
• “Bionic fashion: Wearable tech that will turn man into machine by 2015” CNN, 8/5/13.
• “Samsung Shows Off Simband, a Futuristic Health Tracker” Mashable. 5/28/14.

Register for Tech in Focus: Wearables and Sensors here.