By Dom Serafini
“Do we really need an app for everything?” asked Vox Media recently. “Please don’t make me download another app,” pleaded monthly magazine The Atlantic. Indeed, we live in app-dominated environment, or better yet, in an app-dependent world that imposes more and more app downloads upon us. It’s clear that all businesses use apps to harvest and monetize our personal data, but having too many apps on our phones can cause a number of issues, including slower performance, storage space issues, and decision paralysis.
The name “app” is simply an abbreviation of the word “application,” meaning a software program designed for a specific purpose, particularly on a mobile device. Its origin lies in the shortening of this term within the tech industry, with the earliest recorded usage appearing in a 1985 article related to Apple MacApp products.
I personally have, incredibly, just one app on my phone (no social media, fitness, weather, etc.) and that is already one too many since it constantly chimes every other hour with promo messages, reminders, updates, upgrades… you name it, it does it. And this is without taking into consideration those emergency chimes that seems to blare from the phone even when it’s off!
Could you imagine the noise it would generate for those who have tens or hundreds of apps on their phones and refuse or neglect to silence the notifications? And what about the people who cause lines to form behind them at airport boarding gates or store counters because their phones lose power or simply refuse to work?
Nowadays, even TV trade shows make life more difficult with apps. Instead of providing participants with an easy-to-consult printed list of exhibitors and/or a conveniently located board listing exhibitors’ stands, tables, or suites, all participants must download yet another app.
And what about TV trade show participants who, instead of giving you a simple, plain printed business card, hand you a QR code that’ll need to be scanned into a phone, creating even more work? Assuming, that is, that the code even works.
I prefer to use my cell phone primarily as a voice and messaging tool, and I’m convinced that the world is going ape with all of these apps.
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