Your Startup Acts Like an Obsessive Girlfriend

Ran Segall

Ran Segall

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post. Ran Segall is a designer who believes creative thinking & design can solve most problems. Product designer of @anydo

Imagine you’re going to a bar with friends.

Two days later you’re getting a phone call: “Hey [first_name]! we haven’t seen you for a while, how about coming for a visit?”, 2 days after that you might get this call: “Hey [first_name]! your friend [facebook_friend_name] was here today and really enjoyed, why don’t you come back?”. you might be sick of this cold calling by now, but be sure that two days later you’ll get another call: “Hey [first_name]! last time you we’re here you drank [whiskey], people who like that also like [vodka]! come by and give it a try!”.

This is of coures not some kind of a future vision – this is pretty much my life, and I’m sure your life as well.

Why? because most startups allow them selves to act like an obsessive girlfriend just because they have my e-mail address, or even worst – access to send me push notifications.

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Organic Apps vs. Junk Apps #1

So what defines Organic Apps?

Let’s start by understanding what are non-organic apps, or should we call them Junk Apps?

Connectivity addiction happens when we consume junk apps that boost our ego, make us slaves to our smartphones, and use our data to sell to advertisers, and harm our privacy in other ways.

Here are few examples for what Junk Apps do:

  • Push Notifications make us deal with unimportant stuff when we are busy with something important.
  • Students have hard time to learn to their exams since they visit addictive apps time and again.
  • At the office, people are having a hard time concentrating on their tasks.
  • Multiple people contact us via multiple apps – messenger, whatsapp, facebook, etc – sometimes all at the same time. Which mean we do not give them the right respect and response they deserve.

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