I was in a meeting the other day in the office and suddenly we all heard a 'ping'. This was followed by multiple pings- phones of almost everyone present were buzzing constantly with notifications streaming from different apps - but who is to blame?
We live in a time where urgency prevails. We need to know what is happening around the world at that very moment. If we are to keep away from our phones for even about an hour, we do get uncomfortable not knowing what to do by ourselves, having FOMO and getting anxious to know if we are missing out on something.
Ping! You have a new message!
Ping! Joseph sent you a friend request!
Ping! Look what Sarah and 25k people liked.
Ping! You have memories to look back today!
Ping! Get $5 off on your favorite deals!
Ping! We found a new restaurant for you.
Ping! Ping! Ping! All day long.
It made my life miserable. While I was at work trying to concentrate on the problem at hand or while I'm with my family or loved ones, my phone kept buzzing of deals I don't care about.
Do you relate?
Push notifications should help the users to be out of their phones rather than to constantly draw them in. If you get an email, it does tell you. Till then, why worry about it? But you do and marketers take this as an opportunity to buzz you endlessly in a bid to get your attention.
Game apps would tell you to play more in order to buy their in-app purchases, transport based apps would tell you there are top drivers nearby so that you might consider taking a taxi, food delivery apps would notify you of a new restaurant nearby for you to order now, the news apps would send you notifications every update to just keep out the competitors.
Attention craving, soul sucking little apps on your phone.
What is the solution? Turn off the notifications. Turn them completely off.
Go to the settings of your phone and turn the push notifications off of all the apps that doesn't require your immediate attention one-by-one.
I turned off my notifications a month back I have been a happier person since that day. It gives you a sense of having control. Now if I'm scrolling twitter, it is because I want to and not because someone else liked this tweet which I need to know. I still have enabled notifications for my calls and texts - but that's quite about it and I think you should try it out too sometime.
Ping! You have life waiting to be lived. Take a look away from the phone!
Also read: Are emoticons replacing emotions? and about how I spent a day without my phone
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