Zombification from notifications: How to fix the problem of too many alerts

When was the last time you suspended all notifications on your phone? Maybe in airplane mode or at night (and even then, only if your alarm can still work), right?

Of course, you don’t want to miss your that’ urgent email, an alert about a family or friend emergency in the middle of the night, or that call or text from your coursemates informing you of class projects .

The mindless action of reaching for our phones in the middle of anything makes us living zombies in today’s world.

For the strong few of you who purposefully resist zombification, you have to use your finite store of self-control constantly, all day (don’t check your phone, don’t check your phone, don’t check your phone…).

Apps to the help?...

Willpower is not the answer
For the willpower exercisers, Moment and RescueTime tell you how often you use your device throughout the day and on what apps. This requires additional thought, time, and training on your end to stay disciplined. How often have you said, “I uninstalled Facebook from my phone because I was spending too much time on it.” Then it’s back on your phone in a week or, for someone like me, the next day. I am good at convincing myself Facebook is work-related and generally good for my soul.

Contextual awareness alone is not the answer
There is a category of apps that are trying to be contextually aware (it was definitely a hot category last year): e.g., Google Now, Easily.do, Everything.me. These apps look at your email, calendar, etc. to get you more context, but they just create more alerts. A step in the right direction but far from the solution. This category is designed around giving you the right information at the right time, which just means more data presented to you. It’s meant to be the “right” information at the right time, but it doesn’t stop other information from distracting you. So Google Now alerts you that your flight is delayed, then you get a text from your airline with the same information, and then TripIt sends another alert. These apps are not talking to each other or to the OS, and the disconnect creates more alerts and distractions for you.

OS-level mindfulness can be the answer
One answer could be consolidation. Snowball is almost headed in the right direction. Snowball consolidates all your alerts in one place. It takes alerts from various apps and allows you to respond from within the “notification-dashboard.” A step in the right direction, but right now it’s just a consolidation of alerts in one place. For it to be effective, it has to be combined with the context or what I like to call “mindfulness” so it’s not just all the alerts in one place but also a reorganization of alerts based on priority. Literal translation of mindfulness is simply awareness.

While apps like Snowball are headed in the right direction, adding OS-level mindfulness is the answer. Your device needs to be mindful of the actions it’s asking you to take at all times. The device should be an enabler to a better, productive life instead of making you a zombie that loses focus to the device at odd hours of the day.

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The question of when to deliver alerts is the area where I’ve seen the least innovation. The default behavior is always to push notifications as soon as they are available. But in reality, I only want alerts delivered to me from apps that are relevant at that time of the day. For example, on an Android device, I never want to hear a loud alert and see a notification in middle of my day that says Google has backed up my photos. I don’t know how that alert is helpful to me and why it has to distract me from my regular in-person conversations.

Credit: Mashable