There's a pretty good chance that you are reading this through a smartphone right now. About 85% of the world's population owns a smartphone, and it will keep on growing in the following years. Despite the sheer number, some still don't follow basic practices in owning one.
1. Setting a Strong Password
Just as social media accounts require you to have more complex passwords, your smartphone should also be protected at the same standard. In fact, you need to assign a more complicated one given that it holds all your data, as well as open accounts. Smartphones are easy to steal or lose, and one small mistake could result in a stranger having access to all your information.
2. Back Up Your Data
The same idea about losing your phone or having it stolen applies here. We use our smartphones the most, meaning it has important information that we cannot afford to lose like notes, photos, and even saved passwords. Learn to back up your data every now and then, whether it's through the could or an external device.
3. Organize Your Apps
Depending on the person, there could be a plethora of apps in a single phone, whether it's for social media, online banking, online shopping, productivity, and more. It will be much easier to navigate through all of them if they are properly sorted into folders. This way, you won't have to swipe endlessly trying to locate the app you need to use.
4. Schedule Your Usage
Smartphones are one of the most convenient devices we could have. It has several features for communication, entertainment, work, and other functions. With this, it's easy to get sucked into hours upon hours of usage, so much so that people sometimes use it while it's plugged in. Set a schedule for the times you can use your phone and don't forget to interact with others outside of it.
5. Uninstall Apps You Don't Use
Whether it's a game that you already got bored of or apps that were already pre-installed when you purchased the phone, you should learn to delete or uninstall apps that you don't use. This will not only free up space on your device, but it will also perform better since some tend to run in the background even if you don't use them.
6. Sanitize It Everyday
It might not seem like it, but your phone is filled with bacteria that you wouldn't want on your face when you answer a call. Since we touch it all the time, the bacteria we pick up from everything else end up on our devices. Studies even say phones are ten times dirtier than toilet seats, so think about that every time you hold your phone while you're eating.
7. Check for App Updates
Updates are important for a variety of reasons. For one, apps tend to start running poorly or not even run at all when it's not updated. Second, developers tend to issue updates when they find flaws in the app, and sometimes, those are meant to protect you from vulnerabilities that allow hackers to steal your data.
