Natalie DiBlasio

USA TODAY

When I moved to San Francisco, I crafted nearly my entire new life — from my furniture to my friends and my health — from my iPhone. I was used to a partial on-demand culture in Washington, D.C., where you could order an Uber or have food delivered, but I had no idea how the convenience culture of San Francisco would change me.

Startups use San Francisco as a testing ground to see what works and what doesn't. To see what people will pay for. And the main target right now? Leisure time and convenience.

It started for me on day one in my new apartment, when I had forgotten to buy one key piece of furniture — stools.

I didn’t even have to wait for the once-impressive two-day delivery from Amazon Prime. My online cart full of kitchen stools, lightbulbs, toilet paper, bell peppers, coffee, NyQuil and yogurt came in 18 minutes, thanks to the Prime Now app. 18 minutes. To my doorstep.

Welcome to San Francisco, where apps are replacing chores, responsibility and the slightest inconveniences — like waiting and interacting with other humans. It's an assisted living community for the impatient accessed from your iPhone.

My boyfriend Brent Facetimed his doctor at One Medical and got diagnosed with the flu. I got it too, and was diagnosed through One Medical's texting feature on their app. We both didn't have to leave the couch. In fact, we had Amazon deliver chicken soup and tissues.

I spent that week in bed, a bed we ordered to our house through Casper, a service that delivers a mattress, sheets and pillows to your doorstep in a tidy little box the size of a mini-fridge. It arrived in less than 24 hours from when I ordered it.

Casper isn't alone in the on-demand mattress space. Lull delivers mattresses in as little as one business day. "We despise shopping for mattresses," Lull's CEO Sven Klein told me. "There really is no need to roll around on various mattresses at the retail store while a salesperson hovers over you." Nope. Not when you can order it to your doorstep from your iPhone. The process of ordering took me six minutes. The mattress arrived the next night and I slept like a baby.

Even when you're not sick, household chores aren't a blast. In San Francisco, you don't have to do any of them — if you can afford it. Washio and Rinse will pick up your laundry, wash and fold or dry clean it and return it to your door. Task Rabbit can be there that day to do your dishes, mop your floors or scrub your toilet.

Feeling lonely? Aside from a few of my college friends whose work lives also brought them to San Francisco, I hadn't met any new buddies in the first few weeks after my move. Making friends as an adult is hard and often awkward. But in San Francisco, there is, in fact, an app for that. You can't quite order a friend, but these apps are trying to make it as easy as possible. And, I have to say, these apps have been a great help in adjusting to a new place. There is VINA, think Tinder for ladies hunting for gal pals. You can leave off your height and job and instead pick if you prefer coffee or cocktails, describe yourself in five emojis and let the swiping begin. Weave is a networking service that connects you with professionals in similar or compatible fields for a 30-minute coffee meeting. One of my new Weave friends and I went out for a run together this weekend.

Since I've moved to San Francisco, I haven't called the local pizza place for delivery once. I'd been living in a large metro area so was used to a few online food delivery services like Seamless, Grubhub and Eat24. Now my dine-in apps folder is bursting at the seams. In new cities, Uber Eats promises to have you fed in under an hour. In San Francisco, the ranges are closer to 12-30 minutes. Caviar promises delivery in 15 minutes or less from their Fastbite menu, while everything averages between 40-60 minutes. Sprig offers around five organic dishes a day and delivers them to you in 15-20 minutes. Munchery even donates one meal to a local food bank for each meal you purchase. Need groceries? Instacart picks up and delivers. For those with a license, Eaze delivers medical marijuana to wherever you are in 20 minutes or less. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

But a convenient, on-demand culture is also a muted culture. I had burritos delivered from Pancho Villa twice before I ever stepped in the well-known staple in my Mexican-influenced neighborhood. There, I saw a decade of awards hanging on the wall for best salsa, I felt the energy on the staff wrapping perfectly cylindrical burritos at light speed and heard each order called out in Spanish and English. The burrito tasted better when I could appreciate the soul that went into making it. A feeling you just don't get from a third-party app.

Some of the best discoveries come from a walk around your neighborhood. You'll find a mom-and-pop shop that makes the best sandwiches you've ever tasted. Or a coffee shop with a perfectly shaded patio and well-stocked bookshelf out back. When I rely on apps to tell me what's nearest, what's fastest and what's best, I give up the opportunity to discover the city for myself. And to find the things that make this feel like home to me.

Sharing economy apps like Lyft and Task Rabbit were initially intended to help everyday people help each other by doing everyday tasks. But as these apps become more mainstream and competitive for pricing, the divide between the employees and customers grows. It's us and them. And the technology that stands in between, allowing you to never speak with anyone to order your service, makes it easy to forget that, in the end, the person you've outsourced your chores too, is a person — not just a company.

Besides, at 25, do I ever want to be so stressed and busy that I can't come home and mop my own floors or take care of my own responsibilities? Surely I can manage my home life and make it to yoga class on time. Otherwise, my problem needs a bigger solution than something that I can order through an app.

DiBlasio is a digital editor for USA TODAY who writes the column #Launched about tech and culture in San Francisco. Follow along with #Launched and on social media to explore the technology explosion and the culture collision that make up daily life in the Bay Area.