I have confessed previously to being something of a technophobe – ironic, I know, since I am communicating by blog with my 5 regular readers.  Or maybe the better word is technoskeptic (although my computer informs me that’s not a word).

Regardless, I am reluctant to automatically see value in something just because it is the latest thing available from the interweb.  Laura and I are among the last Facebook holdouts on the planet; I regularly ignore Linked-in requests.  I can’t find a tweet and have no clue what it means to hashtag something.  Sorry . . . .

In the newspaper the other day there was a story about how a couple of businesses had been victimized by fake apps.  Maybe “victimized” was too strong because, apparently, the apps had been developed on spec without the permission of the companies – with the idea that the companies would be so impressed they would pay the app developer.   Maybe not the best business plan.

My reaction was one of puzzlement.  Even if the apps had been legit, their value was unclear to me.  For example, one was for a coffee shop.  What would a coffee shop app do?  Alert you to when a new pot of coffee is brewed?  I had a hard time imagining the business purpose, other than to have an app because it’s what all the cool kids do.  Perhaps I just lack a modern imagination.

Because we are all hypocrites, I must confess I added an app to my smart phone (yes, I know . . .) later that same day.  When looking up a movie rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I was offered an app to make it easier to get reviews and movie info.  I said “yes” and it was – easier, that is.  I now do not have to go through a browser to get to that site, and I have information compatible with my phone format.  An app with value and a purpose.  I can at least recognize the difference – that’s a start.