Now there’s a cellphone app to make us kinder

THERE are cellphone apps to help you lose weight by recording what you eat‚ those that help you track your daily exercise patterns.

But South African Rabbi David Mesinter has decided the country needs an app to help its citizens to become kinder.

And‚ Mesinter really believes President Jacob Zuma should use it.

The South African app – ARK – is made up from the letters of the words: Random Act of Kindness.

It helps users set daily‚ weekly or monthly kindness goals and then reminds them to reach them.

It suggests ideas of how to be kind to family‚ friends‚ colleagues or those in need.

Mesinter wants the world to be a kinder and happier place with less bad news and believes kindness by one person encourages kindness in another.

“What is kindness‚ I ask? It is anything we do that helps someone else‚” Mesinter said. The app can be downloaded from the iStore and Google Play and has so far been downloaded nearly 2 000 times.

“Our government needs to download this app,” he said

Comedian John Vlismas, featured in the online advert on the app‚ describes it as something “like tinder for saints”.

But psychologists say people need more than a reminder to help them change their habitual behaviour.

Johannesburg psychologist Sophia Combrink said: “As humans we are actually terrible at making changes. Even when we are hit with serious life events‚ such as trauma or illness‚ we often only make changes for a short period.

“For change to occur‚ four vital conditions need to be consistently present: motivation‚ ability‚ a trigger and action,” she said.

“You may understand that change is necessary [motivation]‚ and you may have the time and support to change [ability]‚ an app may remind you consistently [trigger]. But the most important condition is that you actually need to take action.

“And this is often where things become tricky. An app providing a particular trigger will not override the final choice we make in how we want to act.”

Combrink said while a kindness app was certainly not a waste of time‚ “we have a long way to go before apps can truly parallel the full complexities of the human psyche”.