We often talk of the advantages we have when it comes to making friends via technology. While the Internet is a vast playground, replete with bullies and thieves, it offers us many advantages. Lizzie and I were discussing the pros and cons of digital life, when the discussion turned to apps. Want to eavesdrop? Little V can give you lessons.
Being a CrackBerry BlackBerry owner, most of my tele apps are all business and productivity. Then, we got the PlayBook. The world of apps blew up. Man Cub is a sucker for an ad saying, “Buy this upgraded app!” Getting him back to whatever he was doing has taught me there are loads and loads of apps.
I hear there’s an app for just about everything these days. I hear it everywhere I go, “Oh Hun, there’s as app for that.”
I believe it too. I have found some pretty wonky apps on days I find myself bored, mind wandering aimlessly. I pick up my smart phone, hit the Market app thingy ma hoo-ha on the screen and in the search bar type a random word or a subject that I have thought about. I am instantly (or not, depending on what apps are running in the back round) transported to a mind-boggling selection some free, some for a fee, some useful, many ridiculous, apps to keep your life in order and your mind engaged.
It is not all that different from when we were children… except we had to do it with sticks and rocks, bicycles and ramps, trees and tree houses, slingshots and catapults. What? We were great at creating advanced weaponry and reconnaissance. Our imaginations invented loads of things, fun and devious. I truly do not ever remember being bored.
I don’t think my imagination has been compromised, but I worry about my kids. It would seem with the advent of apps, boredom has become obsolete.
My concern is because when I was a kid, boredom was the mother of invention and usually the predecessor of my imagination running wild. I have lots of cool stories that started with being bored. Games invented, trouble I got into, books I read,art created, fun I had. There was no platform, no parameters, no limitations due to low available memory. No app. My mind ran free.
My kids get bored, and they have an app for that. A bunch of them. Where’s the need to be creative? Scary really.
You know I am not to that point yet. Well, that is not entirely true. My younger children are using apps to create. Drawing. Writing. Animating.
My older children grew up on the sticks and rocks model until they were old enough for iPhone. Still, about half of them are doing the organizational thing to remember birthdays and appointments.
I do admit that some of them make life more manageable. Calendars, organizers, pill reminders, shopping and to do lists to name a very few of them. The Locator App is pretty cool so you don’t lose your kids. I’m not sure how my mom survived our childhood, without losing her marbles, without it.
What if?
See, how unfair is that? When I talked about wanting to know where all my children were all the time to reduce worry, I was a Nazi. Now, GPS for children is not all that uncommon any more. Can you imagine how different our lives would have been?
Most assuredly if apps had been around when I was younger my life may have taken some different turns. The ones that track your cycle and warn you indicate you may be ovulating, might just have been helpful. I don’t dwell on it much because that would mean one or more of my kids might not be present today. But every once in a while I find myself to the point of mumbling under my breath after a particularly frustrating interaction, “Why the flippin’ hell did I not have an app for that?”
Harmless. Just a what if.
It is inevitable.
Surely, the apps available are evidence that imagination is alive and well and now if you can think it, you can have an app for it.
I’ve just been thinking since apps are most likely here to stay I have a few that would make my life better, and I hope that someone will be able to create soon.
You know I want to develop an app for the children to communicate better using touch tech. I use plenty for school work to make it more palatable.
I also want to make one with Blue Tooth to write my stinking grocery list, so I cannot leave it at home. What would you like an app to do?
I would like to have an app to:
- Lock down my phone when I get into power text mode. (Put it under psychology, emotional health and/or bipolar. It would be popular I am sure.)
- Mend my broken heart.
- Make breakfast for the kids when they get up too early on a Saturday.
- Find the other sock for all those socks.
- Predict rate at which we will run out of TP, and then set a reminder 2 days prior that tells me every 10 minutes to buy some. It would have to have an alarm only disarmed by scanning in a receipt.
- Last 5 min do-over. For those times I speak before I think…
- Considering my current single status, maybe a personal vibrating massager (For my shoulders, you know. I can’t quite hit that spot.)
Silly Monkey’s Uncle
Oh wait. Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. Wow! I am amused amazed. There IS an app for that.
No, really.
See, your imagination is not hindered in the slightest! The first one already exists, despite protests throttling is illegal in most countries, and the second to last one would be the most popular thing ever. Back in the sticks and rocks days, we all wanted a rod and reel which would reel the words back.
I am going to have to think about what I would want my app to do. Hmm…
If you could build an app, what would it do? Which app would you like to see disappear from devices the world over?
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013Haha this was great. My original thoughts on the whole technology thing have changed a bit over the last year, I love the apps they have and you make a really good point about the apps your kids use – the drawing, painting, creating. even the photo editors actually require imagination and provide a great platform for a starting point. Boredom is not a word I hear often anymore, partly because i find lots of things for them to do 😉 but they entertaind themselves with the immense amount of choices – just not like we used to. Maybe I am just revolting against change, or maybe it was valid and it has been addressed. the creativity is still alive just not as free as ours was. At least I think so, or not.. ?
Much love.. gonna go find the app that delivers hugs 🙂
Lizzie <3
Red
/ January 10, 2013I think there is a good amount of give and take with the creativity now. Yes, I still want them to go outside and run and swim, they sleep better that way, but there is an awful lot to stimulate their minds as well. <3
Gail Thornton
/ January 10, 2013Lizzie and Red, I love this! My children grew up in the stones and rocks era, but all three have iPhones now. I have no idea what they are doing when they sit silent at a family gathering, tapping on their phones. I don’t have a phone that texts and wouldn’t be interested in it if it was offered to me. I do have apps for my computer, I think. Ah yes, I do.
I just like to have eye contact with most people, old fashioned, I know! But I love technology and creativity is available to everyone now, not just the talented or trained. Most of the art programs I can’t wrap my brain around, enjoy doing things by hand, but the results I see others come up with are amazing! Nod to you and Red in that!
Gail Thornton recently posted..Find My Books at Redmund Productions Bookstore!
Red
/ January 10, 2013ROFL! I am the coolest Nana because I have the coolest tech. I have my fair share of handmade and digital art. I actually like them both because of the difference in the media. Think of digital art like pastels versus watercolors. <3
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013or finger paints 😉 the coolest thing about digital art is you can do a whole bunch of different stuff which imitates the true media and is a lot less messy. well one of the cool things ..
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Red
/ January 10, 2013Oh, that is a definite plus.
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013uh huh… mental imagery time… the art I have done digitally.. me after doing it traditionally… 😀
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..Edward Hotspur and the SQUEE!!!!
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013thanks Gail 🙂 you touch on another area of technology which irks the crap outta me. I think, and I was brought up this way, when you are amongst family and friends, a guest at someone’s house or them at yours, you engage. You wouldnt go visit and read a book at the dinner table would you? I think it is incredibly rude and I don;t really understand why it is acceptable at any level. That discussion would not have me so amiable. And there is a difference between, let me check my messages real quick and becoming completely engrossed in your phone while in the presence of company. My kids I have no problem saying HEY but sadly and probably the reason it is so common, I wouldnt say anything to anyone else..just sit there and wonder. I wonder why Miss Manners doesn’t talk about this stuff?
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..Edward Hotspur and the SQUEE!!!!
Red
/ January 10, 2013Miss Manners is dead. I talk about it. I take teles away. Or I excuse myself and text them to tell them they are being rude. Not happening at my dinner table or home for that matter.
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013for real? she is dead? well shoot.. are they looking for a new one? I thought she was still stuck on proper etiquette for attire for the fifth or sixth marriage..oh I take back alll the cracks i made.. man, why am I the last to know these things…where is my app for that? ug
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..Edward Hotspur and the SQUEE!!!!
Red
/ January 10, 2013Because it would have to be updated everyday. There is an app for that…the celebrity death newsfeed. It is an RSS by E!
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013oh..what’s an RSS? no never mind..
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..Edward Hotspur and the SQUEE!!!!
Lorre Lyons
/ January 11, 2013I’ll second that. I’d love to blame that behavior on the younger generation, but there are a lot of adults who go into a technological coma when they have their “smart phone” with them. I guess “in person” isn’t as exciting.
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Red
/ January 11, 2013It is the main reason I text them and tell them they are crude and socially unacceptable. 😛
Binky
/ January 10, 2013I don’t have any apps, and I don’t have anything to run an app.. But I’d really like that tree house!
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Red
/ January 10, 2013It is the most fabulous tree house. I have apps for my laptop, tele, Playbook… We use all of them, too. I am sure there will come a time when I have more apps than we can handle, but I do a fair amount of deleting the outdated ones. I know why they flood the market…they wear out or get solved and no longer serve a purpose.
RLB
/ January 11, 2013If I have an app, I’m not aware of it.
El Guapo
/ January 10, 2013My girl and I use the lists on trello.com for our shopping lists. There’s one list with all the stuff we buy, and we move the cards to our Cart list before we shop, then to the In Cart list when we put it in.
they have a website and mobile app. Quite useful.
For the socks, you can always look into getting RFID tags with an app that can read them.
As far as the vibrating app for your…shoulders, just set the phone to vibrate and call yourself. A lot. 😉
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Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013the socks – are not worth the trouble the little upstarts I spend enough energy on them as it is.. I have gotten it down to a science through imagination that works well – if it has not mate it goes in the trash, occasionally in the rag pile for dusting but that;s that. I imagine where the other one might have got off to – eaten or stolen by one legged aliens but the sock itself is no longer of concern that causes great anxiety. Excellent idea however and one that could possibly help millions … seriously. eventually there would be a barcode scanner thing on the tag when you buy them and you just scan it in then when one is lost you already have its mate logged – i think until that was in place the biggest drawback would be putting the locator in the socks. there is a point though Iwould have been willing to go to the extrea effort… when i was washing socks for 8 people… the time would have been worth not looking at piles of single socks..oh i am getting hives just thinking about it. .
as to the other.. well there actually is an app – in fact last time I checked – only because i didn’t believe the reports – at the time of the original post there were 13 .. there is probably more now – It actually maybe what the catalyst to the whole thing was..
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..Edward Hotspur and the SQUEE!!!!
Red
/ January 10, 2013I suppose I am searching for the wrong apps 😉
Red
/ January 10, 2013I do not use an app for a list, but I have gotten more recently to putting the stinking list on the tele in the first place. As soon as my new case for the tablet comes in, I am certain I will be using it more and will probably find an app 😉
Isn’t that last suggestion reminiscent of the pager days?
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013I’d tell you what to look under..but uh ..I forgot 🙂
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Red
/ January 10, 2013Likely story. 😛
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013<—smiles sweetly with innocence
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..Edward Hotspur and the SQUEE!!!!
Red
/ January 10, 2013*until she bursts out with a large snort and uncontrollable giggles*
Lizzie Cracked
/ January 10, 2013😀
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..Edward Hotspur and the SQUEE!!!!
Carl D'Agostino
/ January 10, 2013“It is not all that different from when we were children… except we had to do it with sticks and rocks, bicycles and ramps, trees and tree houses…”
I loved those days of neighborhood kid warfare. Being in Miami our ammunition was lemons, limes, oranges and giant grapefruit. There was no greater pleasure than sending a kid running home screaming to his mother after have been slammed point blank in he face with a rotten mango. The thrill, the glory, the rush…Hurricane season was special because for two weeks until and the downed trees and broken limbs were hauled away they were used to build forts and castles that would be the envy of Charlemagne and Arthur.
Red
/ January 10, 2013I loved the hurricane fallout as well. We did not use fruit, but did wing a ton of gum balls at each other. Those prickly little muggers hurt from a sling shot.
Miss R
/ January 10, 2013Okay, I cannot afford the montly cost of a ‘smart phone.’ My phone is so stupid it cost $14.00 from AT&T and takes at least 15 minutes to type out a 7 word text message.
Clearly the first app to go?
Text messaging.
Well maybe Yelp. close call.
Remember those crazy things we used as kids? Vinyl albums, lawn darts, big wheels?
My favorite combination of creativity and childhood poverty was riding my bike down the tree laden streets. Suddenly hopping off my bike and landing in a neighbor’s yard.
Then suing them.
Red, those were the days.
Miss R recently posted..This Goes Out To All My Bloggin’ Homies
Red
/ January 10, 2013I am still old fashioned. We have a croquet set, horse shoes and lawn darts. The only thing better than the big wheel was the green machine.
ROFL! Did you wear out your half-a-hebe when you were a child? Muah! I am glad to see you tonight! <3
Miss R
/ January 10, 2013Ooooh croquet! Had a set until a few years ago. First hubby and I used to have Sunday Brunch at our house. The champagne always made the outcome of the games unpredictable. Good times though.
Wish I had a grassy
knollyard to play croquet now.Signed,
The Gelt-ridden Miss R
Miss R recently posted..This Goes Out To All My Bloggin’ Homies
Red
/ January 10, 2013Gonna have to fly you out when I get settled so we can play 🙂
Barb
/ January 10, 2013Even though I don’t have many apps (because I get lost in app pages if I have too many), I enjoy them. Especially the one which tells me where I parked at the mall. It’s hours of endless laughs, sometimes it shows I’m parked 2 miles away. Or sometimes it shows I’m parked on the Interstate northbound lane. Not even using my best imagination day would I have thought to park there.
I’ve been missing you. You know what it’s like to be on deadline. Hugs
Barb
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Red
/ January 10, 2013Oh, Barb! I am so very glad to see you. Deadlines have been killing me lately. I love any app which is GPS powered. They are never, ever, ever right. {{HUGZ}} So, when can we expect the book??? xxx
Valentine Logar
/ January 10, 2013My phone? I use it to talk! Sometimes to take pictures and occasionally to send a text, I am a neanderthal when it comes to the phone. I admit it, I don’t want a phone smarter than me. I use to have my phone loaded up and used it for lots of things, then I just deleted everything, now I am happier.
Guess that answered the question. The only thing I love? Bluetooth.
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Red
/ January 11, 2013I adore Blue Tooth. Especially when I can turn a device off from another room and declare it batteries 😉
prenin
/ January 11, 2013I’m a bit of an old fashioned kind of guy.
My mobile phone draws laughs from the kids with iPhones, but nobody is going to want to steal it! 🙂
All it does is phone and text – and THAT’S IT!!! 🙂
Just had to go onto Skype. Messenger is dead.
Now to get my email I have to go to MSN.com and log in there…
Love and hugs!
Prenin.
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Red
/ January 11, 2013I so remember the moving around. I am glad to be in one spot where I can feed things in to reduce the chances of me missing something 🙂
Bearman
/ January 11, 2013When your kids learn how to build APPS, I have some ideas for them.
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Red
/ January 11, 2013My children already can 🙂