Sometimes, a small sound or vibration from the phone can cause the heart to beat faster, and a blinking light or icon appears on the screen, immediately catching our attention, and a notification has arrived. Even after knowing this, we pick up the phone without thinking and see what has come, and we do not even realise when this small habit becomes a long-term behavioural pattern. Notification is not just an update. It plays with our minds. It triggers a reward system which makes us wait for a new excitement every time.
The human brain is designed in such a way that whenever something new and unexpected happens, it releases dopamine, and this dopamine gives us a little happiness, and that little happiness forces us to check our phones again and again. Every vibration awakens our hopes. We may have received something important, and when we don't receive anything, we feel a little disappointed.
In today's digital world, notifications have shortened our attention span. We have forgotten to have patience. We want everything immediately. We want every response instantly, and when we get a like on a photo or a reply on a story, we feel visual and people keep looking at us, and this validation gives us a temporary boost in self-confidence. But if we get fewer responses, we feel that maybe we are not that interesting, and this feeling is slowly human emotionally dependent.
Apps are also designed around this psychology. Notifications don't just come when it's important, but random things like a friend posting a story, a celebrity posting a new post, or just a reminder that your favourite product is on discount. All these things happen so that you come back to whatever you open and get engaged in it for hours, and this is without any specific reason.
Notifications are unpredictable, and sometimes they are useful. Sometimes it is just a random pick, and this unnecessaryness is the biggest trigger and every time we look at the phone, there is a hope that maybe this time we have got some new and useful notification. The result of this uncertainty is called a rewards schedule, and this is how slot machines work, in which you never know when you will get a reward, so people try again and again.
Sometimes we are bored or feel a little lonely, and then a notification gives us a feeling of a small connection and as if someone is remembering us, and this becomes emotional comfort. When the notification comes again and again, we feel that we are connected, but when the phone is hidden, we feel a little empty, and this becomes an emotional dependency which forces people to look at the screen again and again.
Apps also give a personal touch, like Netflix telling you that there is a new series that you might like or a shopping app suggesting that your favourite item is discounted, and this personalisation is done to make you feel that it is just for you. All this is a marketing practice that attracts attention.
When we face distractions every second, our mind also gets stuck on small things, and notifications break our minds. Whenever important work is being done, if a notification pops up in between, the attention gets shifted. Productivity falls, and it is like a slow poison which we do not even realise and affects our whole day's work.
But there is a solution to all this, and the first step is awareness, and when we start realising that not every notification is necessary, then we start filtering. Keep notifications on only for those apps which are useful, or staying without a phone for a few hours a day can also become a healthy habit. Putting the phone on silent mode during work time or turning off notifications is a small practice which can seem very easy.
Technology is always neutral, and notifications are also a tool of some sort, and they can be useful to us if we understand and control them, but if we start to get controlled by them, then they take away our attention and energy at one point. Responding without thinking every time we drink makes us slaves, and if we start making decisions about when and where to need this information, then it just becomes a reminder.