Ding!This needs your attention right now, notifications seem to say.
Boing!It might be an emergency.
Notifications are for the benefit of the app, the phone, the social internet.
They rarely benefit you.
Notifications help apps skew your worldview.
They make you think that your phone is important and essential.
So why are notifications bugging you all the time?
The feeds are infinite, the videos autoplay.
The purpose of a notification is to make youpick up your phone and spend time on it.
Not to bring you news of an emergency or to communicate with your loved ones.
The notifications are for Apples benefit, or Samsungs, or Googles, or Facebooks, or Twitters.
All these companies benefit when you use their products.
Google wants your eyeballs and your data.
Apple wants you so engaged with your iPhone that you get excited every time they launch a new one.
If you just left your phone in your pocket all the time, what good are you to them?
Notifications help apps skew your worldview.
They make you think that your phone is important and essential.
While writing this article, I looked at my notification center to see what had pinged me lately.
I keep my notifications pretty pared down, but there was Reddit, telling me about some trending topic.
The dark side of that isloneliness and FOMO.
You keep checking your phone, notifications or no, because youre afraid of missing something.
Maybe a loved one just texted.
Maybe some important news story just broke.
Maybe your coworkers are discussing something funny on Slack, andyoure missing out.
Well, you did.
Even when we hit the jackpotaha, a friend liked a thing I posted!it often doesntreallymean that.
They upload a photo, and Facebook suggests they tag you.
Theyre scrolling Twitter, and they heart your tweet because its right in front of them.
They didnt seek you out.
Theyre not really interacting with you as a person.
They just clicked something while being vaguely reminded of your presence.
Well, you did.
But its so hard to separate the things that matter from all the stuff that doesnt.
(I do like to see replies, though, so I allow those.)
Its almost always likes and retweets, even though Ive told Twitter I dont care about those.
They just want me to notice the little badge, and click.
The few things I care about are bundled with the many I dont.
If you check an app often, you dont need its notifications at all.
This bundling doesnt benefit me; it benefits Twitter, because it keeps me tapping around in the app.
Social media companiesmake their money through advertising, stuffing ads and promoted posts into your feed.
How to Crawl Out of the Notifications Hellhole
Sick of being manipulated?
This is 2018 America, so your every move is being monetized.
I cant put a total stop to that.
But I can show you how to get fewer of those garbage notifications.
First, youll have to come to terms with which of your notifications are garbage.
I recommend this:
Allow texts and text-like messages from actual humans.
For me that includes Signal, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DMs, and not much else.
If you check an app often, you dont need its notifications at all.
Youll see your Instagram likes next time you launch the app.
Youll see your emails the next time you check your email.
Nobody needs news alerts.
They survived, and you might too.
Chances are you learn about news in some other way (see rule #2).
Turn off all the badges.
In your options, stop apps from being able to put a little red-numbered badge on their icons.
If there are one or two apps you want to usemore,allow just those badges.
Get used to saying no.
When you install a new app, it will want to send you notifications.
Chances are, most of those notifications will just say You havent used this app lately!
Dont trust the app.
You know it doesnt have your best interests at heart.
Use websites, not desktop apps.
Installing an app on your desktop often gives it a direct line to system level notifications.
you might alsocreate home screen shortcuts to mobile websitesin place of installing apps.
(Wake up early some days?
See rule #2).
It will take some tweaking topare down your notificationsto the bare minimum.
I now have notifications turned on for just that account, and off for everything else.
On both Android and iPhone, you might block an apps notifications right from the notification itself.
With notifications off, you may feel lonely.
You may start opening apps to see if there are any new replies or likes.
When you notice yourself doing this, stop!
Ask yourself, what do I really want right now?
Is it human contact?
Hug your kids, or text an actual real life friend.
Decide on a book or a movie before you pick up your phone.
With practice and intention, you could fight the apps designs and use your phone foryour ownpurposes.
Im not there, but Im getting closer.
