Apps Reach New Heights

Religion and college admission. Hmm, I think we could all agree those are two relatively important things in life, right? Personally, I'm a Blackberry user, so I don't have any applications on my phone, but imagine being able to make your confessions through your iPhone, or even better find out what your odds are of being accepted to nearly any college in the country. Let me first tell you about "Confession: A Roman Catholic App", which for a mere $1.99 allows its users to privately (the app is password protected) make their religious confessions through their cell phone. According to the article, the app was created with the the "help of two Catholic priests." To me, this application brings up some really interesting questions. First of all, I wonder whether it's morally and religiously ok for somebody to use digital technology for religious purposes. I believe something like making confessions or praying is should be done in person, not through technology. The idea that you can be sitting in a boring class discussion and while confessing your sins to Jesus kind of scares me, and is an example of technology I never would have imagined seeing. At this rate, who knows, maybe I can convince my Dad to go to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services through video chat or some new ridiculous phone application.

The second application I wanted to talk about is a new Facebook application called Admission Splash, which allows high school students to enter their GPA and test scores to find out their probability of being accepted into any given college. However, one of the major flaws with this application is that it does not take many important factors into account, such as extracurricular activities, legacies, application essays and even the high school you attended. In fact, something many professionals fear is that many students will get their hopes up that they will be accepted into a school, only to be let down when the actual admissions letter comes in the mail. Although it’s amazing that such an application could be created, I don’t know if it’s something I would want my teenage child spending their time on. But look on the bright side Taylor, Rian, Brandon and Sophie….we’re all in college already. 

Citations: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/02/08/confession.ap/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/02/08/fb.app.college.mashable/index.html