The Social Media Hail Mary: Over Eager Push Notifications

the uptick, issue iv

A notification feels so good doesn’t it? I mean, is there anything more gratifying than looking down at your phone and seeing red signifiers of your popularity and worth strewn across your home screen?

Well, not so fast. The 150 likes on your FB profile picture feel great. But the 17 notifications that there are “22 new items for sale in your sales groups”? Not so much.

My prediction of the week: over eager notifications (especially push notifications) are a sign of a platform’s impending death. 😱

Poor Twitter. 😕 I know I don’t tweet that often, and when I do I, it’s usually only a retweet. BUT, that doesn’t mean that I need a push notification telling me that person X, person Y, and person Z shared a video posted by Person A. I’m usually not interested in persons X, Y, or Z and probably have a distaste for Person A.

Platforms: I know that it’s so so SO enticing to leverage your audiences’ Pavlovian responses to push notifications as a way to tempt them into re-engaging with your platform, but plz stop. I know each of your teams is trying to push your users into using their feature, but all you’re doing is diluting the weight of a notification. Let them feel heavy.

Thoughts?