There was a time in the not so distant past when the most intrusive gadget was that thing known as a pocket pager. Back in a day and age when we weren’t as connected as things are now, that one little beep could be annoying if you were on call and ready to take care of some personal things. But for most purposes, it was turned off outside of certain periods and/or there were protocols for resorting to having to page someone.
Nowadays, we have multitude of devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches) that can throw (push) notifications and alerts from multiple application sources where for many, it has become a second nature part of their lives; one that can be extremely intrusive (and in other cases, lead to unhealthy lifestyles) if users don’t exercise some level of control in dialing back many of them. Some folks go through physical de-cluttering but don’t treat their digital life in the same manner (when in reality, it needs to be handled even more).
How many notifications are too many? IMHO, any that aren’t absolute high priority (what is priority for one person may not be for another). These notifications originate from a starting point where that messenger/platform believes their message is the most important (basically this view that the world revolves around them). Employers nowadays are the worst offenders where the boss believes they can message you at any time (yep, some have little concept of personal time/space anymore). I know this is way too overgeneralized as that cannot be extrapolated down to the individual on some platforms. Nonetheless, these are therefore personal/proximity based decisions that at its roots, comes down to some “old school” parameters (like family, close friends, real life emergency type of situations, etc). The good thing is we each have our own brains we can use to make these decisions along with the built-in tools offered by these platforms and the apps that run within that ecosystem.
Every system has various methods for handling this. Besides the usual granular notification controls, there are also broader “focus” settings which can be setup based on things like date(s), time(s), location(s), etc. Similarly, each apps notification parameters can be setup while certain communication apps (usually ones involving real-time chat/messaging), may have a method of “DND” (Do Not Disturb) and/or being able to mark yourself as “invisible”.
Myself, I’ve self-categorized the priority levels for this stuff and the most highest priority are phone calls (contacts marked as emergency contacts will always get through for calls and messaging). I’m also on certain communication platforms that only a few have my contact details where similarly, those notifications are on except during periods I am focusing on something. Reminders from Calendar also get the same level of priority. On the opposite end, there are some messaging platforms I have never used including WhatsApp (anything Meta is a big nope for me) and others that aren’t high priority like Discord, I’ve pulled the plug on temporarily (but am looking to make this long term or even permanent as soon as reasonably possible).
Everything else gets pared down from there. As of this writing, most all notifications are turned off by my choice. The majority of my multitude of email accounts never present a notification (I just quickly glance at them maybe at three times; morning, afternoon, early evening). The main notifications I get on my Apple Watch are medication reminders (which I take in the morning).
Earlier in 2024, I had notifications on for platforms like Twitch and YouTube (and had to scale that back). Now they are all turned off as well. A decade ago (when I was mainly watching a few gaming streamers, it was simpler because most of those folks tended to stick to a schedule. With IRL types of streaming, that has been a different story. For a period of time, I was heading down that path of chain watching channels with those “going live” notifications. Even the two channels I am moderator for, I turned off notifications for the time being.
This was something I initially grappled with since there is also the “supporter” angle. But at the end of the day, it’s still a matter of prioritizing that time where I’ve now classified live streams into the lower priority category unless it follows an established schedule. But for those who do this as a side thing, a set streaming schedule is also not expected; these streamers know we have our own lives/priorities and thus don’t have any expectations of us being there whenever they stream.
It’s like old school television; you know a program is going to be on at a certain day/time (if you want to watch it while it is on). Back then, the alternative was recording it on a VCR/DVR. With streams, there are usually VOD’s (video on demand) though similarly, that is something that vies for ones time. One major difference though is the realtime engagement (chat) that is lost in that VOD experience. Thus it is rare now for me to try and watch those VOD’s (since that is another time priority thing).
On a slight side note, I’ve personally observed some extremely unhealthy (potentially addictive) behavior; like peoples sleep schedules being completely at the whim of whenever those “go live” notifications go off. There are some channels that stream for long hours several times a week where the “most loyal” are there 95% of the times from start to finish. Yeah, I got sucked into that cycle for a short period early on but extracted myself out of it (turning off notifications for many channels as time went on and taking personal responsibility for the amount of hours spent doing this “couch potato” routine). I’ve observed healthy behavior in all of this as well; viewers who take their leave (because it is their bed time) or drop in when they have time. I also know it is none of my business how others conduct their lives. All I am saying is there in an unbalanced/unhealthy angle to all of that with these notifications.
Doing my best “dad speaks from experience” advice (which is hard to relay in online text). If you are waking up to these type of “go live” notifications consistently during what is supposed to be your sleep time, it might be time to admit this is a “you” problem that requires some intervention (better if it is by choice and being self-aware enough to perform ones own self-discipline IMHO). In my pursuit of de-platforming, notification prioritization has been very key to seeing for myself exactly what was happening.
Which brings me back to why I continue to blog old school style. It’s still a medium where I can purge thoughts like this (it’s an important method which helps me de-clutter my mind) but have zero expectations of anyone else reading them (because that also isn’t my expectation given that everyone has their own personal time/priorities). There are no “follow” or “subscribe” buttons either (previously on Blogger, some themes had such a button and if I could easily disable it, I did). I’ve even made sure not to enable something like an RSS feed which someone could manually pull from. Thus there is no method of notification to bother anyone (doing my part in not cluttering up someone’s digital life). If anyone is going to manually hit this site and read up to this point, it is going to be by their own will (unless it happens to be something I personally shared).
