[scrooched_moose]

In the last few years I feel like we've reached "notification hell". Technology used to be a tool that was used when needed, now it constantly demands our attention.

I feel like something is always beeping at me across countless services and just stresses me out.

Windows beeps every time I click anything now, every app wants to spam notifications every our, Jira, countless chat apps, email, even the credit card machines at Target have gotten more aggressive...

[ryandrake]

Do-Not-Disturb mode on all your devices, 24/7. It stops all notifications, messages, dinging, buzzing, phone calls, everything. Huge, instant, and permanent quality of life improvement. I've been doing it for a few years, now, and I could never go back to life with my phone dinging and lighting up like Reno ever few minutes.

A lot of people think they can't do it (OMG what if I miss that one important call out of thousands?), but I lost that anxiety after about a month. So nice to use my phone on my own terms and review my missed calls when it's convenient for me.

You should be issuing commands to your computer, not the other way around.

[stared]

I have it that way (especially Messenger, Slack). Otherwise, I would go crazy (literally, I get meltdowns from sensory overload).

The problem is that people EXPECT an answer soon-ish. Otherwise, they assume the lack of goodwill. Furthermore, nowadays less and fewer people use longer emails.

In a few workplaces, I committed to answering emails. I clarified that I might not read Slack unless for a pre-arranged meeting. Each time they considered it bizarre yet accepted (since it was a hard requirement from my side).

I hope to set a path for other neurodiverse people who lack such chutzpah.

And, in the company I run, Basecamp is the primary communicator to create an email-like asynchronous communication culture.

[dkdk8283]

I’m militant about disabling notifications. My phone is on silent 24x7 except for certain contacts that bypass DnD. I’ll get to it when I get to it.

[dijit]

I'm also this way: but I can easily see how it's easy to not be.

It feels like every app asks to display notifications; and sometimes I think of how the functionality of the app could be negatively affected. (Uber, for instance, could notify me when my cab is nearby)- but once the power is given they can spam you with self-promotion.

[dkdk8283]

iOS has something called time sensitive notifications which when allowed solve that issue, at least for me.

[silksowed]

did not know i can bypass select contacts through DnD. this will help greatly

[Nextgrid]

DND and similar only delay the problem - the notifications still pile up in the background.

Instead, treat the problem at the source by preventing these notifications from originating or reaching you in the first place. Don't sign up for accounts unless absolutely necessary, don't install apps if possible and if you do then deny notification permissions, and for emails that are technically necessary but don't require your attention set up some email rules to automatically archive them.

[Nextgrid]

The problem is that in a lot of cases, technology shifted from a model where it solves a problem and the user pays for it to a model where it's either an ad delivery mechanism and the advertiser pays for access to the user's eyeballs, or a future ad delivery mechanism currently funded by VC money but that will in the future turn into the former.

Even paid products that you'd think would have nothing to do with ads are affected, as there's still someone on the inside whose salary depends on increasing "engagement", I guess since anything could eventually be turned into an ad delivery mechanism and they're keeping their options open.