nThis week’s blog prompt concerns apps: do they maximize one’s time or waste it?
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nAn “app” for those under 30 years old is an abbreviation for “application.” Every computer uses applications. “Computer” doesn’t just refer to the big, clunky machine on your desk. Yes, Virginia, your smartphone is a computer.
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n(If you didn’t catch that reference, go back to school.)
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nI remember writing longhand. There are advantages to that, the main one being that the slow pace of writing by hand forces the writer to write with intent and be thoughtful about the words she scribes. Typewriters sped up the process as well as eliminated the need for people to try to decipher someone’s poor penmanship. Then came computers with their miraculous ability to delete and add words without the use of erasers or Liquid Paper. For touch-typists, computers heralded the advent of mental diarrhea made public.
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nApps as applicable to mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) don’t apply to me. I seldom used a cell phone and I certainly don’t write stories on my Kindle Fire. I’ve come across excerpts of stories written on a cell phone and every single one of them was awful, not only in terms of being poorly conceived and badly written, but also in terms of spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.
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nApps, in the common parlance and current understanding, don’t really add anything to writing. Instead of fomenting creativity, I think they encourage laziness and sloppiness.n
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