19 March 2013

"There's an App for that"

With iPhones constantly being updated, it seems there is an app for virtually everything these days. From alarm clocks to Angry Birds to calorie counters, apps are almost a neccesity when owning a cell phone.

I stumbled upon an article about how busniesses, in the future, can use an app to do some of their public relations work. This app will track tags of the comapny's name and create watchlists that lets the company know who is searching for them. The link to the article is http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/having-pr-crisis-there-s-probably-app-147998

My question is, do you think we are becoming too dependent on our apps? I rely on my alarm, weather, and Twitter app every day and that's not even counting when I'm bored or have nothing to do.

Also, with apps becoming smarter and more efficient, do you think they could eventually replace jobs? An app like the public relations example above does many things that a PR agency does but at a fraction of the cost.

6 comments:

  1. I think that's always a risk with technology. The more advanced we become as a society, the less of a society we become. We have more and more ways to communicate, to do business, to entertain ourselves without ever having a face-to-face conversation with another person. I think it's a great thing to integrate technology into public relations techniques, but not at the expense of losing relations with the public. I'm one of the few hanging on to my "dumb phone" so I'm not as dependent on apps as other people I know, but I think you have a point. So many people rely on smartphones for everything that we're losing a personal aspect of not only doing business, but living in general.

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  2. I do think that we rely heavily on apps. I know I definitely do. I think they can be extremely helpful, but we have become very dependent on our applications doing our work for us. We don't like to look for directions or phone numbers, so we let our apps do the work. We don't like to surf the entire web, so the apps take us directly to a site. All of these things make life easier and make us lazier at the same time. However, I do not believe that apps should, or will, take over jobs like PR. Humans have instincts that cannot be duplicated by a phone application.

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  3. I've heard our cellphones be referred to as an extension of our body, several times now. That's the main reason that it is important for businesses to also reach this medium. I can't explain how frustrated I was that Regions was among the last banks to get an official application on Android. I had become so dependent on the simplicity that applications offered me, that I was so unwilling to even go to a mobile website because that added one more step. I think this is the main reason that we find ourselves so attached to various applications on our smartphones, because they bring everything that we want to do into the palm of our hands. Why would we keep a phone book, if one of the basic functions of our phones, now, is to store phone numbers? So, I don't see this dependency on mobile applications as a stumbling block, but as a sign of the progression that we have gone through.

    In the same way, you will find some jobs getting replaced by technological advancements. That's just the way things work, but in the same way, new jobs are being created with all these advancements, that would have seemed like a joke 10 years ago. People actually get hired by large corporations, now, to maintain a Facebook and Twitter page. So while some aspects of PR, such as surveying to find a demographic, may be replaced by tracking algorithms, another job opens up that has a person take this information and provide a personal appearance for the public. It's like Kaitlin said, it's tough to create a program that can mimic the characteristics of humans, completely. Jobs will get replaced, but at the same rate new jobs are constantly being created.

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  4. I agree with Kaitlin. My phone is pretty much my answer to almost anything. It is as if we, ourselves, are becoming robots to society. People are so afraid of the government taking over their personal or private life, but in a way, we are letting them! If we didn't have certain apps on our phone, would we have the ability to find the answer or entertain ourselves elsewhere? Maybe eventually. But as of right now, no!

    Jasmine

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  5. I definitely think that we have become too dependent on our apps. People can no longer go out to see a movie or out to a restaurant without tweeting about it or Instagraming pictures of their meals. It’s kind of sad, but it has become the norm for our society.
    I know that I live for my phone, if it’s out of my eyesight or possession for more than five minutes, I can’t deal. I’m constantly reading a book on my Kindle app, playing a round of Family Feud, checking my Horoscope for the day or listening to Pandora and the list goes on. I’m obsessed with my apps.
    And I know that people will find jobs through all these different apps that are out there, because so many people have already made millions from them. Maybe one day I can find a come up from an app, that would be AWESOME!

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  6. I don't have a smartphone, ipad, or tablet so I don't use any apps. I do think it's possible that some jobs will be replaced by apps, but also new jobs will be created from them. There is no replacement for a live human, though.

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