“Most people start their day with a cup of coffee, a shower, a good stretch. Beth Akins rolls over, grabs her iPhone and fires up Shake & Spell, her favorite iPhone app game,” Mary Brophy Marcus reports for USA Today. “‘I usually play before I even get out of bed,’ says Akins, 54, of Louisville, who says a day without Shake & Spell leaves her with feelings of withdrawal. ‘I play every day.'”
Marcus reports, “Apps is short for computer maker Apple’s applications, and it refers to the scores of games and services that iPhone or iPod touch owners can download and interact with. There are 85,000 different apps for Akins and the other 50 million users around the world.”
Marcus reports, “People may wonder what the iPhone apps obsession is driven by as they witness ‘i’ users strolling down work hallways and streets ‘apping’ and bumping into others. And what about all those children seen manically poking away at their parents’ iPhone games in doctors’ offices and cashier lines across the country? What is app addiction doing to people’s health?”
‘Clearly, the reward circuitry in the brain is getting something out of it,’ says Marina Picciotto, professor of psychiatry, neurobiology and pharmacology at Yale University,” Marcus reports. “She says there is no research on the impact of apps on health yet.”
Red more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jack F.” for the heads up.]
@ alansky – Well, my iPhone doubles as my alarm clock, so… I don’t think anyone who reaches for their alarm clock before they even get out of bed in the morning needs to seek any kind of professional help.
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How about an app for putting square pegs in round holes and one for Rorschach ink blot analysis? Or am I just crazy?
I’m addicted to por… oh- never mind- wrong forum.
I guess I’m App_athetic about the whole thing
Gee new toy has advantages and disadvantages just like every other toy humans have played around with.
“No research on the impact of apps on health yet.”
Well there are apps for that.
Research away….
http://www.healthline.com/blogs/medical_devices/2007/06/medical-uses-of-iphone.html
:rolleyes:
Yeah, here we go again — something’s popular, time for the alarmist news articles. In the 80’s it was repetitive stress injury from playing Rubik’s Cube (no, seriously).
——RM
Studies HAVE covered this sort of thing. Increased brain activity results in sharper mental skills and can prolong the onset and severity of dementia in the elderly. I have noticed a positive effect since I started doing sudoku puzzles.
I think what this article was fishing for was, is this contributing to a new form of ADD. We are a hyperstimulated society that is not used to downtime. However, some down time is necessary for rest. An app to aid in relaxation and meditation….there’s an idea.
@NCIceman, I hope you mean prevent the onset or stave off the onset of dementia, not prolong it!
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Anything people enjoy doing is now an addiction. It’s society’s way of telling us to fell guilt for being happy.
Personally, I’m addicted to air, food and water. Is there a 12-step program for that?
Basically I’m doing a project on the video game industry, at the moment the retail channels they are sold through. I don’t necessarily need the market share for individual companies (although that would be okay) but for different retail categories such as department stores such as Myers, audio-visual stores such as JB HiFi, games specialist stores such as EB Games, discount stores such as Kmart and Big W etc. Oh and maybe an estimate on what percentage is downloaded off the internet.
video game design colleges