Before the app age

[AARPRachelA]

Remember the time before all of these apps? If you could, would you go back to that time? Why or why not?

Somedays, I would definitely go back because things were simpler and my anxiety levels were lower. But then I also think about how much information I have access to, and that makes me quite pleased (even though we have to navigate through a lot of garbage info).

What are your thoughts?

[bw3491]

Other than the Google phone apps I can't uninstall or disable I have very few 'Apps' on my smartphone. A weather radar app, 7/11 Rewards app (that's about to be deleted), A good AD free music/video player, a free AD based radio player, Police scanner app, some file organizers apps, and that's about it. In fact about all I use my smartphone phone for is a mp3 player or to check the weather radar as anyone that I'd care too talk to has passed on... :((

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[EricC28201]

You know there is another matter pertaining to 'APPs' that tends to be an elephant in the room that nobody talks about.  They collect personal data that may then be transacted for profit by the collector.  Maybe we should all find a way to copyright our personal data and force them to pay us royalties.

[aruzinsky]

Other than the period of time following an unnecessary change of terminology, there is no "app age."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/application

Definition of application

3 : a program (such as a word processor or a spreadsheet) that performs a particular task or set of tasks

Programs for specific tasks have been around at least since the first IBM personal computers in 1981.  There is some controversy when the word "app" was first coined.  See

https://www.osnews.com/story/24882/the-history-of-app-and-the-demise-of-the-programmer/

But, I don't know when the dictionary definition first appeared.  I still call programs "programs."  You tell me when the "app" age began.

[AARPRachelA]

I'm making "app age" a thing @aruzinsky 😊

[GailL1]

@aruzinsky 

The term / word "program" is longer than (3) letters - invent an emoji for the term "app" and it will take off and be used in place of the 3-letter word.  Seems we have to conserve on vocabulary and the length of words - maybe for spelling sake ?

[aruzinsky]

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@GailL1 wrote:

@aruzinsky 

The term / word "program" is longer than (3) letters - invent an emoji for the term "app" and it will take off and be used in place of the 3-letter word.  Seems we have to conserve on vocabulary and the length of words - maybe for spelling sake ?

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"Before the Pro Age"

[EricC28201]

It seems this question circumvents the primary issue.  Remember, behind every app is a person, company or corporation.  If there would be any reason to 'Go Back', it would be to implement more rigorous standards of relevance, user requirements, and privacy protection. 

For instance:  A generally available app to give people access to the materials in The Library of Congress (and the rest of the library collections around the country/world) without collecting personal data would be super.

A Password Manager app means the user is letting somebody else make up and store their passwords for them...Should probably have much more stringent user requirements, data collection restrictions and regulation, and availability requirements.  What good is having super strong passwords that defy memorization stored in a super secure app if the app becomes unavailable?  There is also the matter of whether the user can store and access their passwords 'offline'.

Credit monitoring apps are a beast unto themselves...potentially very helpful, but also potentially even more dangerous, especially the third party credit monitoring apps.  A special kind of scrutiny is appropriate.

These days apps are like the wild west on the internet.