A long, long time ago, so much so that it almost seems like a story told from grandparents to grandchildren, to talk to a person from a distance you had to call them at home. Whether it was to talk with who you liked and you had to risk having someone in your family answer, or to talk to a friend, what was used was the landline. AND the landline was in the house and it was the same for all family members.
But mobile phones changed that and we started to carry our own phone number in our pocket, and phones got smarter and smarter and notifications expanded with it. Not only the calls and messages sounded, now also the emails, Whatsapps, tweets and ‘flirtations’ on Tinder. And when everything became unbearable, the one who writes this text decided to silence everything. And since then he has lived much happier.
You live better when your own mobile does not cause you stress
I recognize that my digital life is especially active because when I am not receiving emails, either personal or in my work account (I curse you, press releases), what I receive are notifications from social networks or from the different messaging apps that I have permanently active. Should I reduce the number of messaging apps? Probably, but it’s something I’ve never done and I’m still here. And this year and the peak of the pandemic, which has not helped the general stress too much (mine and many more) has made me rethink it more than once.
The notifications on my mobile have only increased over the years, and I have nipped them in the bud.
So, in my particular case (and perhaps many of you) lhe mobile notifications are abundant and have been increasing over the years. I have almost no memories (as Gandalf would say) of that Nokia N81 that became my first mobile phone with Internet access and in which I received a notification from time to time. Much has happened since then, and the situation has become unmanageable.
So there came a time when I opted to start silencing certain notifications. I started with social networks. Notifications on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ (do you remember Google+?) Became silent. Nothing in social networks is so urgent as not to be able to wait for me to connect, proactively, to consult them. And of course, over time the same thing happened with Instagram, TikTok, Letterboxd and company. My networks no longer warn me. But I’m not talking about sound anymore, I don’t have notifications at the top of the mobile either. I consult them, they do not tell me.
The next logical step was to mute the groups in the messaging apps. When there are many people in your group of friends, family, co-workers or parents (not my case, luckily), the number of notifications becomes unmanageable. So I muted all the groups I had then and have been muting them by default until now. Most are distributed between WhatsApp and Telegram, everything must be said. All silenced.
With the groups already mute, I silenced the emails although they do still keep their notifications in the notification bar of the mobile. Again, nothing is urgent enough to have to respond within 5 seconds, and it happens that, for my work, in my working day I am in front of a computer. And on that computer I have the corresponding app for the email (in my case, Spark) so I read the work emails during work. And once I detach myself from the laptop, all the emails go into the background.
I silenced social networks, messaging apps, emails and the absolutely essential vibrates, but only on my wrist.
Silenced everything that I have already told you, there were still notifications ringing on the mobile phone so finally, three or four years ago, I made the determination that this was over. The solution was to combine a smart watch (now a Huawei Watch GT 2e, but before it was a Xiaomi Mi Band 2) with the do not disturb mode of the mobile phone. Ready. The clock only vibrates with individual chats on WhatsApp and Telegram, and with phone calls.
I am not lying if I say that I do not know what sounds my mobile has. I don’t know what the ringtone sounds like, I don’t know what the notifications sound like. A long time ago I knew how to distinguish a Samsung from a Nokia or a Motorola or an iPhone by the ringtone or the notifications. Today it is hard for me to do it because my cell phones have not been ringing for years. Not only my personal ones, nor the mobiles that I analyze for work and that silence during the configuration. Notifications reach the wrist (few) or do not arrive (the vast majority).
But I have still done something else, and that is to program the do not disturb mode on my watch. By the time it strikes 10 at night, the clock is completely silenced for everything other than calls. There can always be an emergency at night in which a family member has to locate me, so I don’t want to risk so much. But the notifications on my watch don’t exist between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. the next day. And you know what? You live much better once you get rid of all those interruptions in your day to day.
You realize that there is nothing urgent and that that FOMO feeling of having to consult everything at all times ends up happening. Now when I watch a movie, I watch it, and if I want to consult a social network at that moment it is because I want to. You live better when your mobile phone is not tapping you on the shoulder all the time for you to consult it. Digital life is just that, digital, and what really matters is what you have around you. This is how I handle notifications. And when you meet a friend for lunch, your phone is in your pocket. Pay attention to me or not, but you live more calmly.