The Sound of Silence

Why I Have Turned Off Almost All of my Phone Notifications

I’m not sure if it’s the most famous Paul Simon song, but it’s my favorite, maybe because it was a part of a Paul Simon show I did in my first year of marching band in high school. 

That also happens to be a time where personal computers in rooms, let alone laptops, were not necessarily a rarity, but for most teenagers certainly only permitted under tight supervision. It was also a time where the only reason I got a cell phone was because my mom got sick of waiting after all of my band practices. And then, it was either a brick or some flip phone. I did not have the fancy razor. 

Most of us can fall prey to being nostalgic about how things were back at a certain time. I know I do, but I think that there’s a reason why I sometimes miss when phones weren’t the center of everyone’s lives. 

If we fast forward to today, the quantum leap we have made in the way and how quickly we receive notifications is astonishing. We can talk to almost anyone from around the world in an instant. Our news, global, national, and local, is all updated quicker than we can even fathom. That information can then be sent to us via a ping. Of course, the other apps, like games, fitness, groceries, food delivery…they’re all vying for your attention whether that be to make you spend money or become so annoyed/addicted to a game that you spend money to surpass an extremely obnoxious level.

Then there’s social media. It is hardly recognizable from MySpace and the original Facebook, things meant to connect you to people you know. Now it is a madness of advertisers, political pundits, notifications you never asked for…all tailored to make you feel FOMO, fear of missing out. So, I had to ask myself, what was at the core of this fear, and how do I rectify it?

First, I started by keeping my phone always on silent. It vibrates when I get a text or call, but otherwise my phone doesn’t make any noise. Still though, it felt like I was getting constant information, even if it wasn’t being “pinged” for me. 

I then realized that if I was going to really make a change here, I had to start deleting certain apps. That does the trick somewhat, but it was also slightly inconvenient. When I share a story, I like to interact with the people who are kind enough to comment as quickly as possible. So, I begrudgingly put Facebook back on my phone, as that’s where my sports stories get the best traction at this time. So, how do I stay informed, when need be, but also don’t feel like my phone is always lighting up trying to get me to pick it up?

Thankfully, the solution seems to be turning off most of my phone notifications. If it is a personal message from someone, I will get notified. I only have 3 news sources on my phone, BBC, Reuters, and Goodable. The former 2 are good because they are bone dry and not sensational headlines, and they are not constant notifications, unlike other apps. Goodable, shares nothing but good news and I can’t recommend them enough. The few games I do have on my phone the notifications are off, except Pokémon Go, but I also exercise with that game with tons of walking. 

Yes, I am still trying to catch them all. I told you nostalgia comes for us all.

We finally come to what I believe to be the biggest culprit besides news apps when it comes to inundating us with pings constantly, and that is social media. With the exception of something like a live stream, they will only show up in my notification center. Even my beloved sports go to Twitter has gotten to the point where they send so much crap, I didn’t ask for that it needed to be relegated as well. So, the phone is a lot less “noisy”. The most “social media” updates I get now are from Substack, and those are coming from a medium that I believe helps me grow as a person.

Now do not get me wrong. When college football rolls around I will be getting hundreds of score updates. On heavy soccer weekends my Fotmob app is ablaze with international match updates. When softball gets a viable up to date scoring app, my phone will also be ablaze. But even those I have scaled back on a little. If we are to continue to advance as humans, we need to make sure our technology is working for us, and not the other way around. 

I come back to the sound of silence. My phone is now a lot more manageable, and I am always tweaking it to have it be less intrusive in my life. I even make it a point to go for more walks where I am not listening to podcasts or music, just listening to the world and nature. That’s not quite the sound of silence, but it is certainly quieter than the supercomputers attached to our hips would want it to be.

So, you have to do what works best for you, especially when it comes to work or if you have small children or take care of sick/older family members. I pick and choose the apps I allow to inundate me with information very selectively. It protects me from FOMO, overall anxiety, and I just think it’s better for our brains. I embrace the peace of mind that comes from getting rid of the noise. I embrace the silence, or as close as we can get to it nowadays. 

If we don’t start to pull back from the notifications and allow the apps and the companies that control them to make us feel certain ways and act based on the constant bombardment, we’ll go insane. Your brain will literally change. I’d say it’s already happening. So, what are we going to do about it?