Apps For Teens

August is a fifteen year old girl who has lived in Maryland most of her life. She loves writing and music, her favorite subject is Science, and she’s a vegetarian. She wants to become a journalist and is working as hard as she can towards this goal.

Today, in the U.S., about 83% of adults own a cell phone of some sort and about 1/3 of cell phone owners has a smart phone. And what do smart phone owners love? Apps. App and smart phone use has grown in the past few years and it has created a huge market that is great for entrepreneurs and businesses. But not everyone thinks so highly of apps, especially those who do not have an app capable device, such as a smart phone or a tablet. They can be great tools for business, for organization, or just be something to keep you entertained if you can find the right ones.

One of my favorite apps for organization is one calledmyHomework that I downloaded for free from Android Market. It’s a very simple app that allows you to set your class schedule by time or by class block. You can then set your homework for however far in advance you know the assignments, set the priority level, class, and due date for each, and then you can see a full list of assignments organized by any of the previously listed factors. It is really a very easy to use app and I find it to be useful as many of my teachers distribute calendars listing all the upcoming assignments for the next month or semester. It is simple and makes keeping track of assignments very easy.

Another app that I find very useful as a student is one called STUDYBLUE Flashcards. This app allows you to create flashcards, either on your phone or on the computer, for vocabulary, science terms, or whatever your needs may be. I like this app mostly because you can create an account to link to your phone and make your flashcards easily on the computer then use the same deck to study on the go from your phone. From the computer, you can also add classes, find your school, and share decks with others.

Now, whether you own a smart phone or not, you probably know that the app market is filled with games, joke apps, and plenty of others that exist solely for entertainment. My phone of course has a few of these apps (Angry Birds, anyone?), but one app for entertainment I particularly love is the Amazon Kindle app. My parents and I love to read, so both my parents’ Kindles and my phone are all registered under one account making it cheap and easy to keep a shared library. The app and Amazon account are free, so all you pay for are the books, with many of them being free, including the entire Sherlock Holmes collection. I love the portability and that I can read anywhere, even without an internet connection as you select books to download to your device. This is also a nice app for school when many of the novels assigned are available for free or at least cheap on Kindle.

For me, apps are wonderful as they make my cell phone the only device I need, and it makes everything I have very portable. There are many other apps out on the markets, ones for everything from noisemakers to business organizers and personal assistants. I believe with apps there is something for everyone, you just need to look.