1. QR Reader

This app will allow young people to quickly access all kinds of information from posters, menus, and more. Even this website is accessible from a QR code. With an ever-growing need to access information and links on smartphones, this is an essential app that should come standard on all phones, but as of now it does not.

2. Zoom

The 2019 pandemic forced the world to go digital. For whatever reason, the most popular app/website for digital meeting conferences became Zoom. Anyone who is proficient with Zoom has an advantage in the business world. Many meetings and conferences have either transitioned to a digital platform to save large costs from venue rentals and travel expenses, in addition to making it easier to secure digital appearances for events that don't require the time and travel investment it would take to get someone to appear in person. Even events that still take place in person sometimes include Zoom options for those unable to physically attend. If you don't know how to navigate Zoom before graduating, then you're a step behind the modern world.

3. Google Maps

Whether you need to drive across the country or across town to a house you've never visited or a new restaurant, modern GPS technology makes navigation multitudes easier than it was in the time of reading physical road maps, or the slightly better times of printing out Map Quest directions. This particular GPS app automatically helps find the most efficient routes, accounting for and informing drives of tolls, live traffic updates and speed traps. It can also be set to driving/biking modes to be equally useful when traversing without an automobile. The remarkable usefulness of this free application make it essential for every American driver's cell phone.

4. Spotify

There are numerous apps that stream podcasts and music. I have most experience using Spotify for this, and love that it offers the ability to temporarily download podcasts/shows so I can listen to them when I don’t have internet access without using mobile data. This encourages fitness by allowing me to listen to podcasts when I’m on runs and long walks, enabling me to give my body and brain simultaneous workouts. Spotify also features the Joe Rogan Experience for free, which is the #1 podcast in the world offering long form interviews with an incredibly diverse span of guests, which gives it an edge over other music/podcast streaming apps.

5. Instagram

This app, as with any social media app, can be used for incredibly shallow purposes or deeply enriching ones. I use this app to keep a digital record of the woodwork projects I create. Apart from posting to it, I follow other craftsmen to be inspired by the ideas of others and to learn about different things I would have never seen otherwise in my fields of interest. While these things are also true for other social media apps, I find Instagram to be far less prone to breakouts of ugly political discourse. The comment threads are functional, but not conducive to long arguments and the focus of the app is pictures and short videos.