Today’s culture revolves around technology as if it was our sun. Do you have something on your mind? Tweet it. Does something interest you or upset you? Update your Facebook status. Have a rant you need to share? Post it on your blog. Need some information? Google it. In fact, each of those answers contains a word that 20 years ago would have meant something completely different. A bird was the only thing that tweeted. A blog was a nonsense word. A googol was 10 to the 100th power. Facebook, quite frankly, still sounds sadistic after watching “Silence of the Lambs.” With that much access to media, the question of an addiction to technology becomes more valid. The app iMaddicted, while silly and superficial, still makes me wonder where the line is between actively social and addicted.
This app asks a few questions about your phone usage. Based on your answers, it calculates how addicted you are to your phone. I’m apparently 66 percent addicted. I could qualify that by blaming most of my phone use on work. When you review apps for your bread and butter, you tend to fiddle around with them more than the average person. I started thinking about the other questions. I started wondering about why I can text without a problem, but I would rather bloody my nose rather than call someone.
While this app really isn’t suitable for diagnosing a true addiction to your iPhone, it’s a good starting place for wondering when using it becomes “too much.” My phone helped my parents on the other side of the country see my kids walk and hear them talk without having to be there. I’ve also used my phone for evil, like avoiding having to talk to people by killing pigs with birds. I’ve also tuned out people who were talking to me because my app was more interesting at the time. I’m by no means innocent of being too attached to my phone. So then, how much is too much attachment?
The iMaddicted app is an iPhone app available in the App Store for the awesome price of FREE!
