Why does modern life seem so noisy (even when your notifications are turned off)?
At the weekend, while standing around for hours on end at a two-day athletics meet for the kids, I counted the number of apps on my phone required to keep on top of their schedules.
Eight.
And then there is WhatsApp. Fourteen groups, just for them. I got to 14 and then stopped counting, but there are more.
I consider myself a pretty organised person. But even organised people feel behind.
Turns out, even with the notifications turned off, that still doesn’t fix the mental load.
You’re always ‘on’ which means you are never caught up.
Throw work, home, kids, social life into the mix and then the overwhelm explodes.
Sometimes, as Herbert Simon says: ‘A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention’
All those tiny little change of date, location update, new time, weather updates and even the well-meaning ‘well done’. ‘thanks all’ responses to messages equate to little dopamine hits. It feels good in the moment, but the cycle keeps going. The result then is, that are constantly busy, but not necessarily effective.
Or present.
We are always checking, rarely thinking.
It makes me wonder if we are looking precious moments – rushing to reply and forgetting to consider. All of this short form content, the tiny hits has our brains skimming, but not really thinking. We are stuck in Daniel Kahneman’s ‘fast thinking land’ but real depth requires us to pause.
The big question then, is have we come too far? Or is there another way?
Relying on willpower to keep us off our phones isn’t enough anymore, especially for those managing work and life responsibilities.
I don’t know if I have the solution. But I do wonder what would happen if we gave ourselves more time to pause, to consider – even for a fraction longer than we do now?
How can we build systems of support for ourselves, rather than simply systems of notification?