As a new media aficionado with a fascination for the shift towards mobile technology, I was oddly amused by the Toronto Star report entitled *cue horror movie suspense music* Are apps stealing our minds?
In the iPhone world alone, there are over a 100,000 apps with the a tag line “there’s an app for that.” Yes, this suggests that a simple piece of technology will offer you a blanket solution to all of life’s dilemmas, including boredom; so its no surprise we have a dependency on apps – they do everything for us.
Dependent on a piece of technology? nothing new. So why was this article sounding like a set up for some new zombie app that eats our brains for sustenance…? Are apps turning us into mindless zombies?
The article reads, “That’s an important component of these technological adjuncts to our daily lives, to be able to simply structure our time, our family time, our work time, our downtime, our social time…and to have all these things in one place, in addition to our brains.”
Psychology professor Steve Joordens says smartphones can make up for a natural deficit. Joordens, who teaches at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, expects the average person is using these devices to aid their “prospective memory,” which helps you remember to do something in the future, like go to an appointment or pick up milk on the way home from work.
Prospective memory, Joordens says, is notoriously poor in humans to begin with, “so it’s probably not a huge worry that it would become worse through using these.”
Nothing about brain eating zombies. Not impressed.
Well, that’s the beauty of the smartphone, you can do far more than just make a phone call, it can be the key to your own universe. And with mail2web syncing everything – automatically backing your contacts, appointments and emails to its secure cloud, if you ever lose said key to your universe, you’ll be safe.
Lets get you a little more dependant on your iPhone: Here’s a list of Mashable’s top ten best apps as voted by its readers.
10. Tweetdeck
9. Twitterrific
8. Pandora
7. Jaadu VNC
5. Echofon
4. Evernote
3. Tweetie
2. Shazam
1. Facebook
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I just can’t get into the whole app thing, probably because I’m super cheap.
I know there are thousands out there, including some pretty lame ones (I remember hearing about a bouncing bosom app at one point), but try as I might it’s just not my thing.
The Pandora one is a little tempting though.
i’m pretty surprised that the kindle is so high on there since it just got big (as far as i know) this year. that’s some pretty rapid success to end up in the top 10 list so quickly.
I have to say that I am pretty anti app and anti hand held devices that are not necessary for business in general So many kids and young adults are completely dependent on outside sources for entertainment that it is really upsetting and apps are not helping them learn to entertain themselves either
Granted I know it is a lost cause because it really is true that “All Of Your Mind Are Belong To Apps” (that grammar makes my head hurt)
Lol – mynameisduf I’m not sure I agree with you as all of the app I have on my phone are for business – not entertainment.
And the grammar in the title is suposed to be funny as it is based on an internet meme based on a video game with poor grammar.
facebook is the number one app, too? yikes, soon facebook will control our entire lives, and we will be powerless to resist!
Remember the movie WALL-E, where the humans in the future just stared at screens in front of their faces the entire day? They probably just had more apps than we do!
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