technoscore
There are now more mobile phones than people in the world! Smartphone use accounts for the majority of the recent growth in global mobile devices. In Australia, smartphone ownership hit 60 per cent last year (ACMA, 2013). Almost 80 per cent of US smartphone users check their phone within 15 minutes of waking, and have their phone with them for all but two hours of their waking day (IDC, 2013).
This increased smartphone penetration has been a catalyst for the exponential growth in mobile applications, or ‘apps’. Apps are the software programs that enhance the functionality of smartphones, enabling them to be constant sources of information, entertainment and interactive communication. There are currently more than 2 billion apps available in the four leading app stores, and more than 13.4 billion apps were downloaded in the first quarter of 2013 (canalys, 2013). Sixty-eight per cent of Australian smartphone users downloaded a mobile app in the same quarter.
As the early adopters of technology, smartphone use has hit 89 per cent among young Australians. In the first quarter of 2013, 83 per cent of young people downloaded an app, a rate 30 per cent higher than older age groups (ACMA, 2013). The sheer penetration of smartphone use and apps provides an unprecedented opportunity to provide real-time standardised health information and treatment directly to young people in their natural environment. This not only has the potential to rapidly increase treatment access but may also result in population level improvements in young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Examples of the many uses of mental health apps in psychological practice are provided below.
Source: Australian Psychological Society : Are SMARTapps the future of youth mental health?
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