There's an App for that...
There's an app for that, is there? Well, strike me blind. Let's all go 'ooooohhh' in hushed tones, and pull out our phones, and search it up...
Is there anything there isn't an app for, at this point in time?
(I just checked, and there are several for tracking/recording/rating/reporting your bowel movements, so maybe not...)
What drives the unquestioning adoption, the semi-worship, even, of anything wrapped in a veneer of 'technological'? Why is there an implicit assumption, that if there is an app for something, you are the poorer for not installing it? That if there exists a Facebook group around some interest, you are the poorer for not joining it? That if it is possible to collect, aggregate, upload, and share bog-loads of unfiltered descriptive data on every conceivable subject known to mankind, and then some, that it is automatically desirable to do so?
Or am I the weird one, here?
Is there anything there isn't an app for, at this point in time?
(I just checked, and there are several for tracking/recording/rating/reporting your bowel movements, so maybe not...)
What drives the unquestioning adoption, the semi-worship, even, of anything wrapped in a veneer of 'technological'? Why is there an implicit assumption, that if there is an app for something, you are the poorer for not installing it? That if there exists a Facebook group around some interest, you are the poorer for not joining it? That if it is possible to collect, aggregate, upload, and share bog-loads of unfiltered descriptive data on every conceivable subject known to mankind, and then some, that it is automatically desirable to do so?
Or am I the weird one, here?
Comments
I don't have a need to record my bowel movements, but some people do. At work we have sheets to record people's bowel movements if they are on some sort of treatment to assist their motions. We otherwise only record them if there is a medical need and the Dr wants us to. Paper/smart phone - I say meh. I'd like to see the company who makes Metamucil get caught hacking people's bowel records to target their advertising. That would be a major cackfest.
(edited to remove ageist slur)
--Makes life easier (or seems to).
--Can quickly do all sorts of medical tracking, and send it off to whomever.
--Feeling popular, because you're using something that's popular.
--Keeping up with trends.
--Getting sucked in by advertising.
If I do get a smartphone at some point, I probably will want to add apps for some things. Maybe medical tracking, fun things, calming and relaxing tools. But the privacy aspect would be a concern.
FWIW.
I have to say it is NOT better than a regular phone.
When I had a regular phone, I would hear it ring and pick it up on whatever floor I happened to be on.
Now I have to remember to bring the damn thing with me every time I go up or downstairs. I am expecting a call and then I hear it ringing two floors away and I'm like Hugh Grant in that scene in Four Weddings and a Funeral with all the expletives running up two flights of stairs.
Then there's my voicemail which forgets my password setting.
Then there's the ubiquitous texts from the neediest people of my acquaintance, who happen to also be the people I care least about.
"Hey you there?"
"Hey"
"Hey"
"Are you ignoring me?"
Why yes. Yes I am. Because I happen to be paying attention to something vastly more important than your need for attention at this very second. Like driving. And having a conversation with my Beloved.
And why you think I am just sitting around with nothing better to do than drop everything and answer your text is a mystery to me because we are BOTH old enough to remember the days when you called, got my answering machine, and left a message. And then, when it was a good time for me, I would call you back.
Ugh. I am not enjoying this particular feature of the 21st century.
AFF
If I don't recognize a call via caller ID, I reject the call. I **never** answer such calls.
If I do recognize a call, I answer it if I feel like it, otherwise it goes into voice mail.
Ditto re text messages.
As for apps other than those pre-installed on the phone, I have downloaded (because I find them useful):
I think your inclusion of (or seems to) is extremely pertinent. I suspect it's very easy to get caught up in the minutiae of a topic, if you're being continually fed minutiae.
It's also worth noting, on the topic of 'smart' medical technology,* that you'll only get an accurate, useful, result, from a machine that's regularly and adequately tested and calibrated. It's problematic if every man and his dog has access to technology that's precise, but not necessarily accurate, without the means to adequately interpret it. A couple of cases spring to mind:
My eldest child, at her yearly monitoring check-up (for minor ongoing condition) - always they take a full set of a measurements - height, weight, blood pressure, reflexes, even though none except height are in the least bit relevant. They use these fully automatic blood pressure machines with self-inflating cuffs and a digital read-out. What happened last time, was, the first three times the nurse applied it, it spat out a blood pressure reading that was, shall we say, unlikely for an otherwise healthy child. Each time, she would tut, and re-set it, and try again. Finally, it gave a reading that was within the range you might expect, for the patient she was dealing with, so she wrote those numbers down. The whole thing was an exercise in futility - the machine was clearly faulty**, and the human using it had considerably more nous. In our instance, it didn't matter - but what about when it was put to use on someone who did have blood pressure issues?
My youngest child, some years ago, had fairly regular severe asthma attacks, which we were not able to manage at home. We would take him to the after-hours clinic, where someone would attach a blood-oxygen monitor to his finger or thumb and watch for the read-out. Usually it would indicate 90-91, at first, and the nurse would say, 'That'll go up in a bit,' and wait. When it didn't, instead of concluding that his blood oxygen levels were problematically low, they'd have us take off his shoes, and attach the thing to a big toe instead. Bingo - you'd get 93-94, which is still less than ideal, but not let's-go-to-hospital stuff. Once again, you have medical staff trying other ways of bludgeoning their equipment into saying the right thing, because they already know, just from looking at your child, that he's not as sick as the equipment's trying to tell them. And the one time we did take him in there with pallor and sweating, they didn't bother attaching anything to him, they just called an ambulance.
** And had a sticker on it, indicating a service date which was six months elapsed by that point.
[Texts from my mother.]
"I sent you an email."
"Did you get my email?"
"Why haven't you answered my email?"
[sighs, reminds self to check email when home - as that's one thing I really don't want on my phone. Checks email, finds random screed about how good the weather's been and how nice the beach was today, and cheese is on special at the supermarket.]
I actually find scoffing to be the more usual reaction! People sometimes making fun of the things I have apps for, making snarky comments like ‘However did people manage before smartphones?!’ And I tell them in my case, seriously, not so well, because I struggle a lot with organisation, and apps can help. Things that track and make graphs are really useful for me. Though in my experience most people don’t use them or find them helpful.
We often go off piste on holiday walking or on bikes - it has saved acres of time and faffing.
I do like downloading apps where they are relevant and appropriate. It is really great to be able to use the features of the device - I have half a dozen I have downloaded on there. A sky map, because I don't know the stars well enough, that sort of thing.
The truth is, they make life easier. But they are not life. There is not always an app for it. There is often an app to distract you from it.
I do have my phone on silent for much of the time - and have virtually all notifications turned off. I try to deliberately detach from technology at the end of the day so that I don't end up in that really low energy state of getting constant stimulation by browsing at random on topics I wouldn't normally be interested in. I'm increasingly detached from any kind of social media/platform.
I think information hoarding can be a real thing - one of my relatives has a habit of buying and collecting books beyond his ability to ever read them in a single lifetime - but then he has always valued books and grew up in a milieu in which it was hard to find the books he wanted to read. I think similarly the relative abundance of information is a new thing for most people, and while it brings many benefits we can get addicted to hoarding/linking/clicking it for its own sake - humorously illustrated in the xkcd cartoon below:
https://www.xkcd.com/214/
Additionally, the ability to check things (be it email, information, etc) can be a large cause of anxiety.
I just arrived at Leeds station. As the train pulled in I was able to check when the onward train to Bradford left and from what platform. Way less stressful than making sense of the departures board which is very busy and keeps on changing just as you hone in on it, while people tut at you as you look at it for being in their way. Massive improvement for me. Similarly when I'm ready to return I can easily check the time of the next train.
I remember the old ways. They didn't work well for me.
Before Google Maps, when on holiday in a coastal area and lost the plan was always head downhill until you find the coast, then along the coast to somewhere you recognise.
Even walking in the Scotish mountains head towards the loch then turn left has seen me find my way again.
I have used Google Maps, it was convenient, but never needed.
I commuted through Leeds station for four and a half years. I feel your pain.
The app is useless at Leeds.
If you want Northern, Cross Country and/or whoever is running the London route then it sort of worked, if you wanted info from TransPennineExcuse, forget it. (It was TransPennine's app).
On the other hand apps are sometimes oversold in what they can accomplish, much the same way the internet was oversold in the late 1990s or computers in the 1980s. Yes, they changed a lot of things, but to a lot of the general public at the time these were magic black boxes that could do anything!
Here's one example a lot of folks are familiar with.
The article goes on to list a whole bunch of reasons to believe that Uber is not capable of success in the long-term, or even the medium-term, but a lot of it boils down to people saying "an otherwise unsustainable business model will work if we deploy it through an app!"
A friend of mine who is in a freelance industry had to get a mobile initially because if he waited to retrieve a message from his home machine, he would miss jobs. Then he had to go to texts because that is how jobs were sent. He has to remain on social media because networking is also a factor. Whilst some can insulate themselves, this is becoming more difficult. It has always been thus. Stone to steel to motorised transport to mobile phones.
It's a serious question. I installed an app called Blokada from a secondary repository (F-droid) on an Android phone. In 2 months it blocked app secondary trackers 78,000 times. Most common of these are to something google or something facebook, and frequently instagram. All of these came as shovel-ware* on to the phone when I got it and I've never used any of the apps which phone home. If the apps phone home this often, I think they are using the people. You use apps, apps use you, use you apps, use apps you.
This noted, we use an app for my office computer server such that when logging in, you must click yes on the phone or the computer will not log into the server. Which is called two-factor identification and is required for sensitive personal information and well as restraint of the evil hackers.
"shovel-ware. The program is shovelled into the phone like so much sh**.
Yes, and in many ways the knock on effects of the things they change have been less glitzy and ultimately more pervasive (see lots of the threads on this board at this minute for evidence of that).
There is also a fair amount of silicon steampunk - business processes with computing/internet/apps inserted in a higgledy-piggledy manner somewhere in the middle. As well as regulatory plays like Uber, Deliveroo, Airbnb etc.
Completely agreed re modern way of life caused by phones. But now it's universal. I had a conversation yesterday where a boss and I agreed we would of course do work over our vacation. And she at least is taking time off work to be not working--I'm a freelancer/independent business person, so to be fair I'm not--but there she is knowing that she will of course be working. She'll take a laptop with her just to work I betcha anything.
It is possible to feed google maps wrong location info (Fake Traveler is a good open source app for this).
Well yes, perhaps.
But then there's this.
https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/05/03/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death/
So it's hard to perceive just what role technology plays in iatrogenic mortality.
AFF
When I sit down for my breakfast I browse the web for quarter of an hour, then do my German practice (using the Rosetta Stone app, which is marvellous, interactive and helps my poor, slow brain to learn) for half an hour, then I log off and get on with RL.
The timer keeps me on track
You clearly don’t do long dog walks. I like to be togged out with waterproofs when rain is forecast
A while ago I read a fairly persuasive article that argued that the main difference between a tech startup and a regular startup is not actual tech but a flexible approach to the law.
The local taxi firm with an app doesn't pretend to be anything other than a taxi firm, and its drivers are therefore subject to regular employment law. But Uber says it is a totally new concept, and therefore old-fashioned rules of employment don't apply. See also: Airbnb, Deliveroo ...
I don't think this is true for all startups, but there's certainly a recent class of startups who basically rely on some form of regulatory arbitrage. A tendency reinforced by the trend to apply the same concept over and over again to different markets (so 'Uber for food' 'airbnb for offices' etc etc).
Well I guess that just depends on how you look at it.
Poorly coordinated care - what role does technology play in gathering, storing and communicating information related to the patient? I think some role.
Fragmented insurance networks - what role does technology play in gathering, storing and communicating information related to the patient? I think some role.
Absence or underuse of safety nets and other protocols - what role does technology play in gathering, storing and communicating information related to treatment standards? I think some role.
Unwarranted variation in physician practice - what role does technology play in gathering, storing and communicating information related to treatment standards? I think some role.
Again - I think technology plays its part in iatrogenic mortality, I just can't say and the study doesn't give us a clue. I think the fragmentation of information as it relates to patient care is in part the result of poorly applied technology.
Just my take on it.
AFF
Person is on their knees, hands clasped, head slightly bowed. Someone asks "what are you doing?"
The person answers "I'm using my app."
The someone asks "what is your app?"
"My app is prayer", says the person.
"What does your app do?" asks the someone.
"Many things", says the person, "it has praise, thanksgiving, petition, silence, and sometimes even a little singing."
"Did you pay for your app?", asks the someone.
"No it was free?, says the person.
"Why do you use it?, asks the someone.
"Because it makes me feel good and recharges me and makes me a better person"
That's as much as I have just now. Feel free to improve it, edit it, chuck a cell phone at me, or otherwise, maybe, pray? or whatever.
If technology makes those things worse, then it is technology to blame. If poor implementation makes it worse, it is the same systemic issues that made them a problem before technology existed. The fragmentation of information is definitely an implementation issue. The dissemination of information is something technology can definitely do better than manual transfer.
Low-hanging fruit picking bastards.
Some quality laughs in this thread. Thanks to the joke-makers. Special mention to Gath Fach.
But, to be fair, the same was said about electricity once upon a time.
Life moves on, we move with it.