According to the Business of Apps, there were 197 billion mobile app downloads in 2017 with Millennials (ages 18-24) spend the most time on their phones, about 93.5 hours a month (shocker). But is this time we spend with our faces in our phone screens all so bad?
Androids and iPhone’s are called smartphones for a reason. With cellphones today, we have the world at our fingertips and apps are created to make our life easier and more accessible.
I’ll admit, the majority of time I spend on my phone is scrolling Instagram and texting people but social media aside, I think apps are still a productive use of my time. Email is easier to access, quicker to respond to, and notifies me about class cancellations, UPS package deliveries, and even when Free People’s having their next flash sale.
I think Millennials are the most knowledgeable generation when it comes to following current events.
News apps like the one that comes installed with your iPhone, or individual apps for each outlet (like CNN), make it easy to follow trending articles, learn about breaking news, and follow up on alarming headlines. Even those who aren’t going out of their way to read the news are still connected to celebrity news, sports news and more through the Discover channel in Snapchat.
This is not to say that all apps are totally purposeful and time effective. Gaming apps, like Fortnite, Tiny Wings, and Angry Birds, to name a few, suck us into trying to beat our top scores, and competing with friends and others on the game interfaces. Other entertainment apps like Netflix, and Hulu, are responsible for taking up lots of our time, too.
According to techcrunch.com, we spend 15% of our time on smartphones in entertainment apps, like gaming and movie streaming apps. But I don’t think that qualifies as being a bad habit. It’s just a new one, that many adults like to shame us for. The apps are made for an industry that is rapidly changing and modifying around the smartphone. It’s how millennials spend our downtime now. In 2015, techcrunch.com also found that we spend more time watching movies on our smartphones than we do watching TVs now.
Apps can also make our lives easier.
Waze and Maps help me navigate and visit my friends at their respective colleges. Find My Friends makes me feel safer when I traverse the North Philly streets, knowing that if something ever happened to me, my friends could track where I am. Find My iPhone saved me from hours of looking for my misplaced phone with just the switch of a button, a GPS tracking dot, and a noise signal to alert me that I’m near my device. There are even apps where you can order groceries to your house. My Temple app helps me access school related material, like checking assignments, calendars, and due dates. Messaging apps like TextApp and GroupMe help me connect with my international friends and lets me access club group chats with more than 20 people.
A bonus with apps is that I can hide my face when I don’t want to interact with people by or helps me avoid awkward small chat in the doctor’s waiting room.
While smartphones can pull us out of the present moment, they might also help us make the most out of the present moment through all the accessibility in apps that they offer.