smart apps, a digital frontier or a setback for humanity?

Everywhere we are confronted with adds for "smart" apps. Apps that help you make your life easier, measurable, controlled. And I am all for the explosion of easily accessible information, it has many advantages and sometimes even life saving capacities. But...  does it all make our life easier? Or better? 

I am currently looking at an article in a magazine about a toothbrush that communicates with your phone to warn you when it is time to start brushing another part of your molars and whoohoo listen to this you can also follow your brushing statistics. Your toothbrushing statistics!! I think that when you start worrying about your toothbrushing statistics you should seriously consider making (more) friends or getting a hobby. Do you really need your phone to tell you when you need to move from the left to the right side?!

Weather apps is a personal weakness of mine. I find myself looking at the radar app before I leave for work to see if it will rain and then I am pissed of and feel let down when I actually cycle away because there is drizzle that did not show up on my app damn it. Okay Fem, take a longer look out of the window next time you idiot ;).

Another example, which I find much scarier actually, is navigation apps. Most people use nav apps these days to get from A to B. The other day I was in a car with some friends and we were going to a little place beyond Amsterdam but alas the battery died when we had just started driving and we were left without nav app. The first question of the driver was, where do I go now? I knew that we had to get out of The Hague via this and that road and then take the motorway A4 to get us on the right way. What worried me that I seemed to be the only one with this blinding insight. Not so many years ago everyone managed to get to places without 'helpful' apps. It certainly makes us more dependent. Dependent on a piece of equipment that might die out at any moment and leave us stranded without knowing what to do. And what happens then? People looking at their phone, cars stopping in the middle of the road... And yes navigation apps are easy. But easy is not always better or good for you. 

I wonder when the first phone-related anxiety attacks will start to occur because our phone, which regulates our calendars, exercise regime, sleeping patterns, travel, contact with loved ones etc..., dies or god forbid the internet connection breaks down. These apps make decisions for us, they control our life and based on what? General statistics? Someone in a living room with good computer skills and business sense who hopes to make a bit of money? It is addictive to know and know more about the patterns in your life. Are you sleeping enough, does your child cry more than 'normal', how many calories are you eating, how many calories did you burn with your exercise, how many steps did you take today and was that different from yesterday? It gives the illusion of control. But ultimately you are really in control when you make your own choices and your own mistakes. Mistakes are valuable because they provide us with opportunities to learn. I worry about the cumulative and psychological effect all these apps and dependencies have on us. Does it change us, make us less resilient, less able to cope with uncertain and surprising situations, less able to remember because we can look up everything? 

I am really not against apps or digital programs in general. In fact I applaud most digital progress and happily make use of it. I just fiercely want to keep my own independence, my ability to make choices, to find my way, to analyse a situation, to love, share, inspire and have fun... without a mobile phone. I really do not want my phone to ping me with a smiley face when I have brushed my teeth for 2 minutes. Is that too much to ask? 

P.S. I wrote this on my Ipad in a blog app of course ;)