Now they have an "app" for everything, or do they?

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While I am sure that "apps" such as Lumosity can be helpful in exercising one's brain, and MyFitnessPal is a calorie watcher's dream, I am not convinced that there is an app for everything.

But recently, the Australian Department of Defence released High Res, an app to help people manage stress.

Before I critique this approach to managing stress, I must admit that for people who spend much of their time using their mobile phone, such an app may help in the practice of emotional intelligence.

Several years ago, when I first worked on the idea of "lecturing as performance", I found, inevitably, that my emotional intelligence was tested whenever I tried anything even remotely different at the front of a lecture theatre filled with about 600 people.

As a result, I took a course on emotional intelligence to provide me with some tools to manage my emotions while "performing". It worked.

One of the tips mentioned by the instructor appears to be replicated by High Res. For example, some habitual cues such as flicking a bracelet when confronted with stressful situations might signal one to disengage from an argument, to break off in order to process what is happening, and to return at some later time with a more constructive approach to dealing with the other person and the issue at hand. 

Rather than a physical signal, I daresay High Res may provide users with a tool to do the same thing, albeit less intellectually and more perfunctorily. While I have no intention to criticise the app and the important intention behind it, I must admit that this obsession with "an app for everything" is missing the key point.

I stopped using a mobile phone at the end of 2009 after returning from my sabbatical in Jordan. Ever since then, my stress levels have decreased significantly.

When I take my dogs for a walk around my local lake, I am shocked by the number of people who walk their dogs while talking on their mobile phones. I know people who drive long distances for work and they call their friends and family to entertain them while driving. Take the time and look around - it is a rare thing to see a lone individual walking around without talking on their mobile phone.

The whole point of being alone is to rejuvenate one's spirit. To reconnect with God or the Universe or Nature or whatever it is that floats your boat. Reaching for the mobile phone destroys this important downtime, but that's what most people do whenever they are alone.

Mobile phones are an obsession. And I believe they are an unhealthy obsession. If you can't be by yourself without calling or SMSing or chatting with someone on your mobile phone, I doubt any app will help you build resilience. The problem is much deeper than that.

So while the intentions of High Res and the importance of addressing mental health issues are deserving of attention, I am not convinced that an app can help people to reduce their stress. I believe this to be superficial at best and a lost cause for addressing first principles at worst.

So stop using your mobile phone as a substitute for thinking, being punctual, and self-reflecting. Unplug. Have an app-free day. I guarantee you that your mobile phone is a cause, not a cure, for stress.

But don't believe me - try it for yourself and then tell me it didn't work out for you!

Book Notes: "The Faber Book of Exploration" by Benedict Allen

The Faber Book Of Exploration by Benedict Allen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is certainly a tome. The text is very small, with introduction to each piece is written in even smaller font, with the notes in the smallest font I can read without a magnifying glass and my glasses. The book is about 3 inches thick, too, so getting through all 800 pages was no mean feat. This is an anthology of great texts, and for someone who is interested in, but not enthralled by, travel literature, the book is ideal. The "anthologer" is an ardent cultural "immerser" - a technique I enjoy - and an adventurer, so the anthology is put together rather well. Thoroughly enjoyable, and I am considerably more knowledgeable about far-off places and the extremes of geography.



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My Top Ten Tips for University Students

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I am often asked to name my top ten tips for first-year students. You can probably guess that I am not a fan of post-modern "happy-clappy". And when the metal meets the meat, it will be your hard-earned skills that will matter, not the euphoria of being all kumbaya. Here's my top ten:

1. Read the unit outline. Twice. Then read it before you start every assignment. Then read it before you submit every assignment. Then read it once more for fun.

2. This is university. The standard is high, always, and you must lift yourself to the standard. The only way to lower the standard is to devalue your degree. Of course, you are here to prepare yourself for professional life, and it is nigh impossible to do so without a degree of some quality. Therefore, it is sound logic to lift your own standards.

3. If you have never read a journal article, you have never read an essay. If you have never read an essay, how can you expect to write one?

4. “The first draft of anything is shit” (attributed to Papa Hemingway).

5. Every unit is different. Every discipline is different. There is no such thing as “standardised” in the real world. If you expect your university education to be standardised, you are planning for a fake world. Learn the differences, however subtle, because otherwise you are not receiving the education you have signed up to receive.

6. A university degree provides you with formal proof that you can navigate your way through bureaucracy. When, and I say when, the system screws you over, and before you whinge and moan and blame everybody else as if the world owes you a living, take charge of your own life, and remember that the ability to navigate your way through bureaucracy is one of the single most important skills you will gain here and this will distinguish you in the workplace from non-graduates.

7. The way you write an email to your lecturers is how you will communicate in your professional life. If you do not get a response from your lecturer when you used twitter-speak, expect to get the same response from your bosses or your clients.

8. Before you ask: “Do we need to include references?” The answer is yes, always. Nobody ever lost marks for including references.

9. Respect your fellow students. They are paying for this, too. If you want to waste your money, do it in silence or far enough away from non-like-minded students that nobody else cares that you don’t.

10. Learn to receive feedback. The lecturers who offend you the most with their feedback will probably be those who taught you the most. If you want lollipops and rainbows, then do not listen to feedback. If you want to learn, then learn to receive feedback.