As we’ve been doing reviews on more and more apps (one a day at 1pm!!) we began to notice a trend between all our phones here at eTechTour. After noticing that similarity here and going home we began to realize it was a lot more widespread than we had originally thought. Keep track as you go through each one and add it up at the end to see your total score, just add one point for each question you say yes to and you’ll get your score!
#1. You can’t delete those apps, even though you haven’t EVER used them
You’ve all had the odd time where you were bored and decided to just randomly look through the Market (Android), App World (Blackberry) or App Store (iPhone) and downloaded some apps that just looked cool only BECAUSE you were bored. Then something else better came along and you forgot you even downloaded them, but when it comes time to clean up your phone, for some reason, you still can’t delete them saying to yourself “Oh well I was going to try it, I’ll try it out laterâ€â€¦ and then never do…
#2. Text messages can be deleted? Don’t they just continue on forever?
That conversation you had with that friend 3 months ago that’s still in your phone because you might need to reference back to it at some point? Yeah you probably won’t EVER need to re-read those silly 5 word text messages but you’ll still keep them just in case right?
#3. You have 2 to 3 to 4 to 5…. A Lot of Contacts for the Same Person!
It’s a natural thing of life, we move, switch carriers, or just feel like a change and change our phone number, our email address or our house address, but when you get that message saying “I’ve changed my number, add this one!†something inside you says “Hold onto that old one, what if I’ve got the wrong one, how else can I get a hold of them?†… This would be correct, except they changed their number… delete it!
#4. Emails, emails and emails…
Six different email accounts? Signed up on 500 web pages for updates/offers/coupons? Now what we should be calling junk is suddenly something we have to hold onto. What if you REALLY want to buy that TV for $100 less so it’s only $1700? You know you’re not going to get it yet you still hold onto the email just in case…
#5. Ooooo Isn’t That Shiny? Gotta Have It!! But What to Do With The Old Phone?
Smartphone’s are almost like a fashion to us, the newest and best comes out, you have to have it, but what do you do with your old phone? Well you better keep it just in case you want to go back and use it again sometime, even if you already have another 5 phones still sitting in their boxes under your bed that you haven’t used in years. What’s one more going to hurt right?
#6. Unactivated Little Pieces of Gold (SIM Cards)
It used to be that every time you would upgrade your phone you’d get a nice new SIM card in the box, all perfect and unused. But of course you still have your old one from the phone before, so what to do with the new one? Better hold onto it in case you need it later on! SIM cards are pretty much indestructible (okay not really but you probably won’t ever REALLY need to change them unless something with the SIM becomes different i.e. Micro SIM) so you’ve probably got a few laying around at home still!
#7. DeActivated SIM Cards (cause they’re still that valuable)
Okay, so you dropped your last phone in the toilet and don’t want that icky old SIM touching your nice shiny new phone (even though it would still work perfectly fine) so you do change your SIM. Now what do you do with the old SIM card? It still has all your old contacts that you’ve already transferred to the new phone but what if you lose this one and might lose the contacts? Oh better hold onto that SIM just in case (we won’t tell anyone it was in the toilet)
#8. You have 5-16 Pages of Apps, and Well, Let’s Be Honest, Only Use Maybe 2 Pages
No one likes to clean up, especially their smartphone. Everytime you try to delete those app’s you don’t use anymore you find yourself thinking “But what if I want to use it again?†Even though you haven’t thought about it or used it in months you still have to hold on because you MIGHT use it again sometime.
#9. Now Where Did You Leave That Charger?
So you’re on your 3rd or 4th device. You’ve probably stuck with the same manufacturer for at least a couple of them, and chances are you bought some extra accessories for each phone because you can never have too many chargers right? Wrong. A charger for at home, at work, and maybe one in the car would probably be sufficient (especially since almost all smart phones charge when plugged into the computer now too… so count those data cables as well!) So do you REALLY need 15 chargers divided up and kept neatly with each phone? If they use the same ones, save some money, reuse! They don’t change that often anymore!
#10. Memories Memories… Oh Wait, Where’d You Leave That Memory Card?
Most smart phones use expandable memory to compliment their internal guts which means expandability yay! (Sorry iPhone) But these like chargers, don’t usually change from phone to phone, so you don’t really need to have 1 for EVERY old phone you have, if you need more space, sure get a bigger card, but if the one you have suits you, just take it out, and put it in your new phone! Simple!
Alright so add up every question you said “Oh man that’s totally me!†to or whatever variation of that phrase suits you, and compare your results below!
Scoring
0-3 – You’re definitely not going to become a hoarder anytime soon. We do just want to make sure however, you do realize a smart phone is one where you can download applications? And get emails? And lots of fun things like that, that old brick phone with a battery backpack doesn’t quite count!
4-6 – You’re hanging dangerously close to the edge of becoming a hoarder later on in life but haven’t quite hit that point yet. Watch yourself carefully and you can probably avoid it, unless you’d like to live in a 1,200 sq foot place with 30 sq feet of walk able space?
7-9 – Put down the smart phone and stop what you’re doing. You are definitely going to become a hoarder later on if you’re not already. Look around you, are there piles of garbage and unused unwanted things lying all around the room? What? They’re your treasures? Oh okay then, that’s fine! Just remember, next time you’re inviting us over for something, umm, we’re busy that day!
10 – Well, you’re already a hoarder, and probably so far gone that there really isn’t much to say about it. Well, there may be one cure, call a bunch of people over and have the world’s LARGEST GARAGE SALE EVER!! EVERYTHING MUST GO!! But give us first pick, because not everything is junk, you’ve obviously got a lot of phones lying around, we might be able to find a use for them… Maybe just stack them in our piles of stuff lying around? Hah.