Help Is it ok to leave active application running in background?

[mystvearn]

I have placed the sgs2 task manager widget on the front screen. Most of the times when I don't close apps properly I see the apps running in the background-according to the task manager widget. The apps deemed as running in the task manager is less than the "running applications" in the Settings>application settings.

Apps which run even though I go back to the home screen include the social hub, messaging, etc. Google's own app does a good job to close the app when you press the home button.

So should I still close all the apps and keep that widget running or its just using more battery by having the widget and closing apps?

 

[Slug]

Some things have to run in the background in order to receive updates or messages e.g. social media clients, email clients etc. Unless you're experiencing problems it's best just to let Android get on with managing resources - it's pretty good at it.