From Notifications to Silent Notifications
How we slowly become chronically alert…
Nowadays, people use smartphones, so do I, and like most of them, I deal with multiple incoming notifications every day. I know the ones that should be ignored, the ones that I should respond to immediately, and the ones where the answer may be delayed. To signal their presence, they all use the same method which consists of making my phone vibrate. Some people just turn their phone on silent mode, and before doing so myself, I opted for the most common, discrete way of being notified by physical output and in doing so, be very responsive to answer messages. Over time, my brain even got used to differentiating the different patterns of vibration so that I instantly knew which app was concerned and could avoid watching my phone every time, but still, it didn’t really help me get rid of the feeling that I had a pending notification.
That’s not something you can easily put aside.
Because of COVID-19, France and many other countries have chosen the containment strategy to fight against the spread of the virus. It changed a lot of habits, including basic social needs. In such a short time all my social activities disappeared. As a result, I had much more time and also had the feeling that I was beyond the reach of the FOMO. I recently researched the topics of productivity, well-being, and addiction, in relationship with smartphones, and as a result, I was curious to understand how this small piece of technology affects my daily life. So I decided to try the blackout experiment.
I turned off my phone and social media for 14 days.
At the end of the experiment, I was quite surprised not to have encountered any difficulties to follow through. I was expecting withdrawal symptoms but nothing happened. However, I felt an urgent need to communicate with friends, so I once turned on my phone, acknowledged a bunch of notifications, and just got back to my quarantine life, and, as expected, things went back to normal. But eventually, I observed some changes.
The first thing I noticed was an improvement in my ability to focus for a longer period of time. I also no longer felt the need to respond to any messages in such a short period of time. These little adjustments were enjoyable, no doubt, and I really thought that this was the outcome of the experience. It was only the beginning. If you were to learn that cutting off notifications makes you more productive, you would probably be disappointed by the evidence and consider it a matter of common sense.
I came to realize that the purpose of this experience was not to be more productive, but rather to rethink our relationship with smartphones.
To explain why, let’s move back to the beginning of the 20th century, Ivan Pavlov just discovered Classical Conditioning. What he did was ring a bell each time he gave a dog some food. He repeated the procedure multiple times until the dog no longer needed food to salivate. The dog had just associated the sound of the bell with incoming food.
The food can be considered as an Unconditioned Stimulus (US) because it elicits an Unconditioned Response (UR), “to salivate”. On the other hand, the bell is a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) and it produces a Conditioned Response (CR).
Food (US) -> salivate (UR)
Food + Bell (US) -> salivate (UR)
Bell (CS) -> salivate (CR)
The human brain works in a very similar way by associating many things, every day. Here are few examples. A song you love could be the result of a memory from a joyful moment in your life. When you hear the noise of a shower, you probably feel relaxed and when you drive on the highway and look at the billboard displaying a giant yellow “M” on a green background, you might salivate as well.
Phone vibration can also be related to Classical Conditioning.
Incoming information (US) -> State of alertness (UR)
Phone vibration + Incoming information (US) -> State of alertness (UR)
Phone vibration (CS) -> State of alertness (CR)
It’s no wonder that we find ourselves in a state of alertness, it’s a normal and natural reaction that humans have acquired as a consequence of millions of years of evolution. The question is whether it is acceptable to be in this state so frequently without good reason. What is the impact on our ability to learn or just daydream? And finally, do we still have control over our devices, or is it the opposite?
There are no easy answers to these questions. I personally made the choice to turn off the vibrations, except for incoming calls. I’ve had several opportunities to discuss this subject with different people, which eventually led me to write this article that I hope you enjoyed.
