We live in a notification world. Everywhere we turn someone is vying for our attention. Your phone is buzzing, emails coming in, notifications popping up on your computer, everything wants your attention.
But I’ve started to wonder lately, does all of this add to our lives positively or does it just add more anxiety and distraction that keeps us from truly living our lives?
Sometimes I find myself expecting a text message or email. It may not even be one that I want to deal with or reply to. So when I see that little light glowing or my phone vibrates, I can feel that anxiety rise as I check it. The funny thing is that sometimes the email, text message, or notification might be a positive one, but since I already expected it to be one I didn’t want, I don’t receive it with the same excitement that I might otherwise.
Why do we feel the immediately need to reply right away when we receive a message too? It’s funny because there are usually people right next to us. Real, live, breathing people. We choose to ignore them to respond to something on our phone.
Even though it seems like emails and text messages are as good as a phone call – they talk, we listen, and respond – there really is no guarantee that an email or text message will be immediately received by the other party or that they’re even expecting an immediate response! Yet, when we receive one, we feel the need to reply right away.
It’s possible that I’m the only one who feels this way, but I would guess that I’m not. Have you figured out how to not be tied to the notifications that are constantly popping up in your life?