Offering Relief for Your Notification Ailments

Are your smartphone notifications taking over your life? We're here to help.

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When I turned off my notifications for Facebook messenger–as I was receiving them every few seconds as friends messaged about planning an upcoming event and became irritated–this popped up the next time I logged on. 

This is a great, brief how-to guide on customizing notifications. What I am perturbed by is the fact that they encourage you to turn on notifications. They basically command you to do so, to "see messages instantly" on your phone. Speed is more important than the consequential disruption. Of course, Facebook thinks it's the most efficient way to stay updated. If you check your phone as frequently as most people, I'm sure you will stay in the loop. 

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What's the difference between a banner, badge, and alert?

The iPhone notification system has several options for you to choose. Some are more obtrusive (maybe annoying) than others. This guide will help you decipher the notifications that will work best for you. 

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Calming iPhone Background

Having a stressful day, week or month? Download one of these backgrounds to help calm things down.

Calming 1

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Are you suffering from Notification Fatigue?

Are you tired of your smartphone disrupting you every 15 minutes? Do you wish those little red circles would stop popping up? We're here to help with any of your smartphone notification problems. Tell us about your notification ailment here, and we'll help you gain control over your notifications.

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How to customize your Instagram notifications...it's a bit confusing the first time around, but I hope this helps.

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Customizing your Facebook notifications...because not everything is worthy of your attention. 

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If you turn your notifications off, then you won't have any! What a novel idea.

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I...

… feel empty.

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Participate in a NotifcatOFF day

Take a day off from pesky notifications, numbers increasing in tiny circles, and alert badges popping up every few minutes. 

I challenge you to turn off or reduce the disruptiveness of your mobile phone's notifications for one entire day. After your notification free day, share what you missed here. Let's see what happens when our lives are disrupted a little less. 

Here's a couple resources on how to turn off your smartphone notifications:

Android users (Jelly Bean)

iPhone users 

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Clay Johnson: Why Notifications are Evil

A few words from the author of Information Diet on why notifications are evil, in case you were convinced otherwise. 

We're getting so many notifications because the companies that now power the web are engaged in a war with one another to capture our attention. They call it "user engagement" and everybody wants it, so everybody's coming up with as many new ways as possible to capture our attention so that at its base, we can view more advertisements. These notifications are not meaningful requests for your immediate attention, they're things designed to get you to lose half your day to the service that created them. That's evil

Read more 

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Turn off your notifications for a day

What would happen if your phone bothered you less? Or not at all? Try it for one day. Turn off or down your notifications for one day and enjoy the benefits of a discreet phone. 

What did you miss? Important emails? Friends' funny pictures? Share what you missed and see how things change when your mobile device is notificatOFFed. 

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Introducing NotificatOFF. 

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Nagging Notifications

_________________________________________________________________ Most of us stay connected through some sort of mobile device. We rely on these devices and their notifications to stay on top of things, reply promptly, and keep up with friends. 

What happens when we turn off these notifications? Will we miss out on important events? Will we forget to reply according to the etiquette? Or will we not really miss out on anything important at all?