New apps pop up every day that purport to make our lives easier. Calendars, reminders, planners, and more help us keep our crazy lives organized. You also likely have an app for your bank, for your local weather, and an ESPN app to follow your favorite sports teams. Some of these apps have become so integral to my daily life that I honestly don't know what I would do without them (or how I even functioned before the iPhone). But I would argue that some apps that claim to make our lives easier really just add to the clutter, digitizing tasks that are better off done the old-fashioned way.
Below, I list a few apps that I couldn't live without, apps that have undoubtedly earned their permanent place on my iPhone home screen. Then I'll list some apps, old and new, that I find to be pretty frivolous and whose purpose is better served off of the screen.
Keep It:
1. Wells Fargo app
No idea what I would do without my Wells Fargo app. I use it every day, whether it be to check my account balance before I buy a Starbucks latte, or to deposit a check from babysitting, or to send off a bill payment for my apartment utilities. Just typing that out reminded me that I need to send off a bill payment.
2. MapMyRun
This app will forever be my workout buddy. I have a short attention span when it comes to running, so I like to take impromptu routes when I go for a jog. This app uses GPS location data to chart out my route and calculate the distance, average pace and calories burned for a given run. A voice also gives you updates (over your music) when you hit certain mile markers.
3. Shazam
Oh, how did I survive the days of playing "Name that Tune" with my brother and not being able to cheat with Shazam? Just kidding, I never cheat. But I use this app probably more often than most, pulling it out whenever I hear a song on the radio or at a bar that I like. The best part about Shazam is that it saves the tags of all the songs you shazam, so I go back later and download all the ones I liked.
4. Scanner app
My scanner app (I used TinyScan until it started charging, and now I use Genius Scan) has been the unexpected frontrunner to make my list of most-valued apps. It's perfect for scanning and sending off forms, which I've been doing a lot of as I prepare for studying abroad this summer. You just snap a picture of the document and the app resizes, reformats and enhances it for you, spitting out a ready-to-email .pdf doc.
5. Dropbox
This is probably on most people's essential repertoire, but Dropbox has replaced the old "email-it-to-yourself" technique and allowed me to access important documents at home and on my desktops at work or in class.
Ditch It:
1. Meditation apps
Mediation apps were the cool new thing of 2013. Calm, Headspace and Mindfulness are a few popular ones that, as one Huffington Post article put it, can bring you "Inner Peace On the Go." But I find something inherently contradictory about meditating with my handheld. The reason meditation is popular right now is because it offers a space for silence and solitude in the cluttered, digital overload that is our everyday lives. Using your iPhone to facilitate that kind of escape just defeats the purpose.
2. Tinder
Nothing good comes out of Tinder, unless maybe you use it for pure entertainment. Tinder is an invitation for young people who lack the confidence or social skills to date normally to flirt casually on their phones with similar people in their area and judge each other solely by physical appearances. Tinder prides itself on its number of "matches," but I'd like some data on how many of those matches lead to long-term relationships.
3. 30/30
I heard about this app in Mashable's recent article, "9 Super Simple Apps That Will Make Your Life Easier." It's basically a fancy timer that organizes your tasks into 30-minute chunks, allowing you to focus completely on one task at a time for just 30 minutes. I, for one, think this app would make accomplishing my daily tasks a lot harder. Not only do the things I need to accomplish rarely boil down to 30-minute intervals, but I'd be too distracted by my dwindling time allotment to actually focus.
4. Cloak
This "anti-social" app I wrote about in my last post is totally unnecessary, and I seriously doubt it will ever catch on. To recap, it lets you track your friends using location data and helps you avoid them by notifying you if you get within a certain radius of them. Its founders think anti-social apps are soon to be on the rise, but I don't. I'd only put active effort into seeing people I want to see, not into avoiding the possible awkward run-in with people I don't.
5. My Fitness Pal
Okay, I know a lot of people use this app and find it really helpful. You basically use it to set fitness and weight loss goals, and then type in every piece of food you consume and every minute of physical activity you perform, and it keeps you on track for achieving your goals. A friend and I gave this app a try one time when we decided we wanted to lose 5 pounds for Spring Break. I lasted all of 24 hours before I grew extremely irritated with having to type in the exact amount and brand of everything I was eating (Who knows how much a "cup" of Cheetos is?). I prefer good, old-fashioned self control.
So there's my list of must-haves and need-nots. What's yours?
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