Slaves To The Notification

    Being an individual with ADD, life can be challenging sometimes. As someone who is distracted by the smallest things, I can tell you it is a constant burden. Always having to re-read the same things over and over again gets tedious, as I start to think about other things half way through a sentence. I'm sure getting a phone didn't help this either. Always having something to constantly distract me from reality made my ADD way worse. Now, I did not get a phone until I was in the sixth grade, and it wasn't a smart phone either. That didn't stop me from developing a need, an addiction, for notifications. You see, this is back in the day when every single app didn't bombard you with constant notifications. This was back in the day when the only notifications readily available were for messaging and missed calls. They were still awesome to receive though, because we all want to be notified that someone is giving their attention to us. Someone is making the effort to notify us that they maybe care a smidge about us. But, now that has all changed. The notification has taken a whole new course of direction.

    Picture this: It's 2030 and you are watching TV with your children (I'm not sure if we have holographic TV's yet, but it's 2030 so maybe we do). We now all have smart TV's, that send us notifications through our TV's. Constant advertisements on top of advertisements. Is that really the world we want to live in? Certainly we can shut them off, but we may be so used to them by then that it is a part of life at that point. We just learn to accept it. We don't want to miss our favorite influencer or celebrities next action. We want to constantly be updated about what is going on where. So, my question to you is: Are notifications popping up in the corners of TV's realistic? I think so. I think by the time that it is 2030 society will be so wrapped up in everything going on around them that they will need to be notified every second, no matter where they are or what they are doing. We will need to be notified about where Todd the landscaper is checking in to eat on Facebook. Notified about who is going on Instagram live for the 5th time in a day. Notified that we are indeed a slave to the notification. 

    This week we talked on a designers oath, which I believe should be implemented to stop this kind of thing from happening. Advertisers and marketers need to understand that their advertising is unethical at times. Especially with the technology we have now that allows for data to be broken down and sold from companies to advertisers, or vice versa. Advertisers and marketers are getting smarter by the second on how to keep us as slaves to the notification. They are learning how to hook us for those 6-10 seconds, and how to make an impact while doing it. The app Vine could easily be argued as a social experiment, testing the possibility of individuals making a lasting impression in 6 seconds or less. If it was even possible. The first time I ever had heard of Vine I was so confused on the concept. Who on Earth could possibly make an entertaining video in 6 seconds? I was so used to watching videos that were 1-2 minutes. Needless to say, I was wrong. The social experiment worked. People would much rather watch 6 seconds over 30-45 seconds. As we see now, the most successful people from Vine are now famous YouTubers or influencers. They know how to capture an audience and keep you hooked. If they can make a lasting impression in 6 seconds, who says they won't on a 5 minute video? I kind of went off track here, but what I'm trying to say is the attention spans of people are dropping daily because of constant bombarding from notifications.

    Do I think notifications are necessarily bad? Definitely not. I like to be notified when someone new follows me on Instagram, or when I get a Snapchat message from a friend. These notifications aren't terrible, but they are distracting. The notifs I think are useless and unnecessary are the ones where they recommend people to friend or follow, who's liking what, who's going live, who posted on their IG story, etc. Things that are pointless and no one looks at but are specifically designed to reel you back into the app. Those are the types of notifications I can live without. Maybe I just don't have enough people to care about to appreciate these notifications. Of course, you can always turn notifications off completely. This is a solution, but be prepared to be left out of the loop. Be prepared to not instantly see when someone likes your photos or direct messages you. The fear of being out of the loop has made us slaves to the notification.