App-session: Our Love Affair with Mobiles
Working with Tech urSelf, Inc. on its mission to develop technologies to help people live happier and healthier lives, I’ve been thinking about the psychology behind mobile apps and why apps can motivate people to make positive changes in their lives.
At last count, there are over 6 billion cell phone subscriptions worldwide, which means nearly everyone (90% of the population) subscribes to a cell phone service. In 2010, mobile apps were downloaded nearly 11 billion times and that number is predicted to rise over 76 billion app downloads by 2014, according to @MobiThinking’s 2012 Global Mobile statistics report.
It is safe to say we’re serious about our phones and our apps, and it’s possible that our love affair with mobiles is veering towards a global obsession. But why are mobile phones, and the tools and apps they offer so important to us? Do they have the potential to help change our lives?
Apps Offer Positive Encouragement
Many of the health and fitness-focused apps I’ve used focus on positive encouragement. A running tracker app I use tells me I just ran ‘my fastest 5K’ or ‘my longest distance ever.’ A diet tracker app will congratulate me for logging my food diary five days in a row. It’s the carrot approach to motivating change. Regular, positive encouragement can be a big motivator even when it comes from a computer recording.
Apps Make Us Smarter and Give Us Perspective
Apps are great for collecting and storing personal data that we might not otherwise. For example, in my case, my running app allows me look at the speed, distance, and route of any run I’ve done in the last nine months or so. It’s great for comparing runs and for motivating yourself to do better. But one of the features I love, that I wouldn’t have tracked without the app, is total mileage. On days when I have a bad run, I can look down and see that since I’ve started using the app I’ve run over 400 miles. One bad run isn’t going to change that, and it isn’t something to worry about.
In this way, apps give us the ability to track our lives over time in ways that are hard for our brains to do. These tools can make help us take a longer-term perspective and encourage us to stick with good habits over the long haul even when it’s hard to do.
Apps Can Be Social and Reinforce Relationships
One of the most important features of apps is how they allow us to interact with friends, family, and online communities that support us in making positive life changes. Through NikePlus, I can, for example, share all my runs on my Facebook page or Twitter. I could also challenge my friends to beat my times or distances or try to beat theirs. When I log on to FitnessPal, I can see my friends’ food diaries. Through a mobile app-based interaction, my friend, Megan is helping me stay on track and I help her without having to have daily conversations about our diet.
Many of us want to affect positive change in our lives and our communities. Apps are helping us do these things better through a combination of encouragement, smart data collection and presentation, and providing support systems for these changes.
To learn more about Mobi Thinking’s work research on mobile use visit their website or follow them on twitter @MobiThinking.