BY CLAUDIA TOVAR, Editor
An app for a smartphone, music players or tablets is the shortened version of “application software.” It is software for a specific purpose. For senior Kelsey Cotton, she enjoys her smartphone because of its apps and the Internet capabilities included.
“I bought my smartphone for the Internet use, but I think the apps and games were an awesome bonus,” Cotton said.
The are many uses for apps. Apps can be for school, games, finding information, communicating, directions among other uses. Apps can be helpful for students in the way of communication with other peers for a group project or anything that could be possibly needed for school. Disadvantages include spending too much money on apps or being distracted from the real world as one pays closer attention to their app.
Apps go through cycles of popularity. Apps never actually become obsolete and instead fade away as a new app or game overpowers the previous one. Some apps, such as Words with Friends, are still often played. Words with Friends is an interactive game where people can play against other app users. The app is a game similar to Scrabble, and players try to see what other words their friends came up with and beat them with a high score.
“I like to play Words with Friends because you can play against people you know and also because it’s challenging,” junior Sydney Strang said.
Angry Birds, a game still preferred by few, is a game where the player tries to defeat all the green pigs that stole all the birds’ eggs by putting the birds on a slingshot and shooting them at the pigs, and the player dislodges all the pigs by a touch on the screen.
Many students, like senior Taylor Krawczyk, still find the app very entertaining. However, this app, like many others, has lost its touch over time and is no longer quite as popular.
“I think the game is fun and also addictive in a way that keeps you wanting to continue playing it and because, I personally, enjoy a challenge,” Krawczyk said.
Some students think apps fade away in popularity due to the fact that people don’t find it entertaining as they used to. Some people like a game with new ways to enjoy it.
“[They fade] because today’s society gets bored of the same thing they do everyday and they just move on from it,” sophomore Christine Shelton said.
Another “fading game,” Fruit Ninja, features a player slicing fruit with a swipe of their finger like a ninja warrior, and this game, like many apps, has the potential to be addicting since players constantly want to get a higher score.
Doodle Jump, also faded, is a game that is about a creature, guided by the player’s fingertip, that moves to a never-ending series of platforms without falling and win points. This game is no longer appealing to people from the simple fact that it has become boring over time to some.
Some people will always continue to like the same app over time, but there is an inevitable fading of app popularity.