Illustration by Don Tate / for the AMERICAN-STATESMAN
This week's Digital Savant column is about all the annoying interruptions we receive each day in the form of notifications, alerts and alarms. The column was in Tuesday's print edition of the American-Statesman and you can find it on MyStatesman.com.
Maybe you don't think they're annoying and find them useful. But perhaps we can agree that for some people they're getting a little out of hand? (Have you ever had lunch with someone and their phone never stops notifying them of things, not even for one solid minute? Crazy, right?)
Here’s an excerpt from the column:
If you wanted to lump all these messages together, you could just call them "notifications," which is a catch-all term if you own an Apple or Android phone. In recent years, the way phones and tablets organize all of the alerts and updates from different apps into one neat, front-and-center, at-a-glance display has become a major mobile feature. A well-organized set of notifications can make you feel like you're on top of what's going on and plugged into the now. A messy notifications list is a pirate ship plank's walk into deadly, chaotic seas.
Notifications, though, are part of a larger problem: interruptions. Perhaps you have found a way to shield yourself from the increasing number of pings and prods, the dings and distractions. For the rest of us, it's a struggle; what if you miss an important text message? Or a flood warning? What about an email from the boss or news of a sale from your favorite store's mobile app? How do you balance all that with the need to reclaim your time, attention and physical space from external intrusions?
I offer some ways you can approach the problem (or ignore it). You can read the rest here.
Do notifications drive you crazy? How do you deal with them? Let me know in the comments!
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