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What if You Put Your Phone on ‘Do No Disturb’ Mode Forever?
Shutting out digital noise can do more than just declutter our home screens
For several years now, I’ve been receiving text message ads from a brand I’ve never even bought anything from.
Actually, most of the text messages I get these days are all ads.
What sets this one apart from the rest, though, is that I can’t seem to stop its persistent pings, which come at least once, sometimes twice, a week. Yes, I’ve tried everything I could think of. I’ve blocked the number. Multiple times. I’ve replied with ‘STOP,’ which usually works with other ads. I’ve even contacted the brand directly, asking them to remove my number from their advertising list. They didn’t reply, of course.
And nothing has changed.
I still get those ads.
But it’s not just this one particularly stubborn digital intruder that’s been driving me mad. It’s the constant stream of other notifications flooding my phone, too. For the past couple of years, I’ve even set my phone on ‘Night’ mode between 9 PM and 8 AM, but that still leaves me with 13 hours of ads, reminders, calendar invites, various app notifications, emails, group chat texts, and more, all trying to grab my attention over and over again. And I…