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I Turned Off the Notifications On My Phone, And I Will Survive!
At first, I was afraid; I was petrified.
One month ago, at 2:09 PM on a Saturday, I finished watching The Social Dilemma. Taking the interviewees to their words, I decided to turn off the notifications on my phone. All of them, from all the applications. Yes, even WhatsApp.
Forty minutes and a nap later, I woke up and reached for my phone. The locked screen was as blank as my brain. I felt abandoned until I remembered notifications were turned off. Still, I felt left out; it took me one hour to check all the applications for new messages. I hadn’t let my phone down for more than five minutes that I wanted to do it all over again.
It reminded me of my youth; when I was sitting in front of the TV and zapping through 86 channels, round and round. There was nothing to watch, I knew it, and yet, I kept on checking if something had come up. Thirty years later, I was none the wiser.
I kept thinking I could never live without the notifications by my side.
I went out for a walk to give it some thoughts. Scary as it might sound, I went without my phone. What if I have a severe accident and lose consciousness? How am I going to call the ambulance without my phone? What about the eggs I’m hatching in Pokemon Go? Would all these steps be walked for nothing?! [In this…
