Monday, March 17, 2014

Week 9- Apps

There is a word that has emerged into today's vocabulary that everyone in our society knows, whether they know what it actually means or not. That word is "app".  We are bombarded on a daily basis with companies and products promoting that "there's an app for that". When Apple coined that phrase a couple of years ago I don't think anyone foresaw just how imbedded in our society it would become.
An app, short for application, is a software package or program that does something. It could be something small like a timer, or something big like a health tracker/calorie counter, or it could simply allow you to twist the pictures you take of people into funny shapes. Apps have grown along with smartphones and are found on most portable devices such as tablets as well. Apps are wide spread and cover the gamut of interests great and small. Businesses have capitalized on this by saturating the market with free or inexpensive apps that constantly bombard the consumer with ads promoting their products. Many corporations have entire IT departments working to develop apps for banking, entertainment, product integration and more.
While the usefulness of apps can't be denied, the majority are time wasters.  New, seemingly addictive games are constantly trending with the public and the prevalence of smartphones means that the distractions go with you everywhere. Companies no longer can just monitor or block traffic to known distracting sites on employee computers, they have to contend with John playing Candy Crush Saga in the bathroom. While company issued smartphones can be outfitted with apps to monitor or block other distracting apps, this doesn't help with personal devices.


Austin, Kelly. (2014, February 5). Smartphones Distracting Employees from Office Tasks. MobileSpy. Retrieved from http://www.mobile-spy.com/blog/smartphones-distracting-employees-in-office/


Smartphones Distracting Employees From Office Tasks - See more at: http://www.mobile-spy.com/blog/smartphones-distracting-employees-in-office/#sthash.32YAZFPq.dpuf
Smartphones Distracting Employees From Office Tasks - See more at: http://www.mobile-spy.com/blog/smartphones-distracting-employees-in-office/#sthash.32YAZFPq.dpuf
Smartphones Distracting Employees From Office Tasks - See more at: http://www.mobile-spy.com/blog/smartphones-distracting-employees-in-office/#sthash.32YAZFPq.dpuf

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