Still living in a Notification hell – Om Malik

“It doesn’t matter what app it is – they all try to get me to turn on notifications, again and again, so that I can come back to their service. Facebook and Instagram are the most aggressive”.

Source: Still living in a Notification hell – Om Malik

There comes a point where notifications are counter-productive with some users. In my case I first smelled a rat with Linkedin because of the constant barrage of notification mails. The service seemed desperate to get my attention.

That got me thinking about the value I got from LinkedIn — close to zero and certainly not enough to compensate for the  time lost.

Nothing bad happens when notifications stop

Sure, there can be some notifications that should stop you in your tracks. It's possible to allow family members or important colleagues to cut through. As for the rest... they can go

I killed my LinkedIn account. Nothing bad happened. In all the years I was a member I got maybe, one small freelance writing gig from LinkedIn. Since leaving my work in-tray is as full as it was and I’ve eliminated a time-sink.

Leaving Facebook is harder. There are people who are important to me who I’m in touch with there. The don’t seem to have any alternative online life. So the account lives, but I’ve turned off all notifications. In fact I’ve turned off almost all notifications from every online service or piece of software.

The only exceptions are where I need to react fast for business reasons. And, anything relating to my immediate family.

Here’s the thing. Nothing bad has happened. If anything I’m more productive.

Notifications are often not about serving our needs, but are about someone else’s business model.

There is also a nuclear option. Choose one day a week to turn everything digital off: have a digital sabbath.