title: Do we use symfony annotations to decrease conditional statements in our code and make code maintainable?
body: <p>In symfony2 Doctrine we use annotations as below:  </p>
  
  <pre><code>/**
   * @ORM\Column(type="integer")
   * @ORM\Id
   * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
   */
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Do we use it to decrease conditional statements in our code? What is the main purpose of annotations?  </p>
  
  <p>I've heard that it decrease overall performance of your site, is that true? Does anyone have experience in the field?</p>
  
  <p>I'd appreciate if someone could shed some light on the subject.</p>