Reflections

If you set out to build an application for a smartphone it is in your best interest to really get to know your audience. To attract traffic you may start trying to figure out what kind of people would most likely use or download your app. From there you could start to tailor your marketing strategy to target these would be users to guide them into downloading your development. We see this type of behavior all the time with just about anything made to be sold or marketed to an audience and why not? After all the time put into making something a reality anyone would want to attract their fair share of activity. It would make it all worthwhile.

In 2020 to 2021 cigarette companies alone spent a whopping 8.06 billion dollars in marketing while Meta, the company who owns Facebook and Instagram racked up over 15 billion dollars in marketing costs. It’s no secret that cigarettes cause cancer. They’ve got warnings plain as day on every pack in some countries depicting just what can happen with continued use of the product. Applications like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook on the other hand bear no warnings at all.

The “dangers” of these social media apps aren’t exactly so direct but with 1.6 billion people using TikTok alone and heavy users spending nearly two hours on the application each day with your typical users racking in at least one hour each day that adds up to 365 hours for the average user each year and around 730 hours for heavy users yearly. This time would be entirely spent on one app alone. If we begin to factor in other apps like Facebook and Instagram in addition to this the minutes quickly begin to add up.

Average users racking in about an hour on Facebook and an hour on TikTok would see usage counts of nearly 730 hours yearly while heavy users of both or a combination of applications like these could see over 1,000 hours every single year spent gazing into their phones. Keep in mind that these numbers are coming out of social media platforms alone. It’s worth remembering that in developing the iPhone Steve Jobs was once noted to mention that in the creation of the reflective screen on his device he hoped that the person using it would be reminded of themselves when their reflection gazed back unto them from the phone’s surface.

Mr. Jobs made his phones to be used as tools to improve life, they can do just that and much more. In our pursuit of these devices it might be wise to ask ourselves what we are giving up by reaching into them as we tend to do. Are we missing memories with our pets, children, or family members as time passes by skirting the borders of our little plastic rectangles? Are we sacrificing precious moments when we could be making moves toward a better version of ourself to improve the lives of those around us as well as our own?

Our lives are made up of fleeting moments and if we are lucky enough to be given the opportunity to lay on our death beds and reflect on those moments are we to see that face gazing back at us as someone who did their best? Or as someone who left too much on the table when they were capable of so much more? We all are unaware of how much time we have left here but it is within our control to paint the picture of that very scene if we are to be lucky enough to have it.

Today just like every other day is yet another chance to take the first step toward a better you.

Take care friends and thanks for stopping by,

Jordan

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” -Epictetus