Accountability Apps: The Latest Digital Trend?

Accountability has been an integral part of success in both business and life for many years. People need others around them to ensure that they’re living according to the values they espouse. 

In the past, that involved manual monitoring and face-to-face interactions, but technology is slowly making those methods obsolete. In today’s world, you can keep yourself accountable by sharing data with others via the internet.

So what apps are out there? And can they really make a difference in how you live your life? Can they make you more successful? 

Apps That Help Your Earn Money For Staying On Track With Your Goals

The vast majority have goals in life, whether eating more veggies, going to the gym more often, or avoiding unhealthy behaviors like smoking. There’s just one problem: sticking to lifestyle changes is incredibly difficult. Day one of a new diet is okay, but day one hundred is a whole other ball game. 

Now, there are many apps, including Pact, that will pay you if you stick with your lifestyle goals. These apps are exciting. First, you decide how much you’re going to reward yourself for sticking with your new routine. Then the app tracks your movements and habits to ensure that you’re following the strictures you’ve set out for yourself. You can delete the app at any point, but you can’t get the money back.

Apps That Restrict Adult Content

Right now, there’s a movement to reduce the amount of adult content that people consume online. Many individuals are wondering whether it is healthy to absorb this material regularly, or whether it would be better to remove it from life altogether. 

Now, there are a bunch of apps that promise to do just that. These aren’t just content blockers, though. Instead, they contain features that forward screenshots of your browsing activity every few seconds to the people you know, as this Covenant Eyes review describes. The hope is that by making online activities public, it will encourage the elimination of adult content consumption. 

Apps That Shock You When You Do Something You Shouldn’t

Psychiatrists have been using “electrical shock therapy” for many years to recondition people’s brains. Now a bunch of app developers are getting in on the act, hoping that their devices will enable behavior modification. 

A developer called Pavlok, for instance, has developed a wristband with a device that will zap you every time it detects that you’re doing something you shouldn’t be. If you smoke, for instance, the app will shock you. The same goes for if it detects hair pulling or nail-biting. 

Ultimately, the developers hope to create a Pavlovian response. The idea is that you’ll automatically refrain from problem behaviors because your brain associates them with pain.

How it ultimately works out depends very much on whether you decide to wear it or not. But it could work, couldn’t it? 

Are you excited about this new raft of accountability apps? Or do you prefer old-fashioned methods of staying on track with your goals?