4.8 KiB
| title | date | draft | toc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pull vs push: intentional notifications | 2023-03-16T17:20:32-04:00 | true | false |
Modern internet services heavily rely on push-based systems. YouTubers used to say "smash like and subscribe!" at the end of videos because they wanted you to get a push notification when they publish a new video. When YouTube stopped sending notifications for subscriptions and added the bell, YouTubers started saying "smash like, subscribe, and hit that bell!" instead. Free Android games often ask for permission to send notifications because they want to periodically remind you that "hey!! you downloaded me! don't forget about me! come play me, run out of energy, get annoyed, then buy some extra energy with your hard-earned money! also, pay a bit more and remove the ads while you're at it! 😃"
E-commerce platforms often ask you to subscribe to their newsletter in exchange for a small discount on your next purchase because they want to push their marketing to your inbox. Some news websites serve massive popups asking you to subscribe to their newsletters so they can, again, push their new content in front of your face. In some cases, this tactic may be perfectly benign; there are some individuals and companies with newsletters that might be genuinely interesting and they just want to let you know that the newsletter exists in case you want to subscribe. But they still result in content being pushed in front of their subscriber's faces.
Similarly, instant messaging is all about push notifications. It's in the name: instant. When someone sends you a message, you usually want to know immediately; maybe it's a family emergency, maybe your food delivery person just arrived, maybe the sky is falling, etc. Those are all situations where you genuinely do want notifications pushed in front of your face. But think about while you're at work. Do you really need to know that there's no more coffee in the lounge when you're waist-deep in a big code refactor and having to mentally juggle variables and signatures and business logic and overarching structu— look at this funny meme!
Ah shit. Where was x set again? Does this function duplicate the logic of
that other function 83 lines above? You've lost your train of thought and it's
going to take you about 30 minutes to get it back.1
Maybe you're spending time with your family but that new hire keeps asking for help with this snippet of code they can't figure out. You genuinely want to help them, but time with family is incredibly valuable. It can wait until tomorrow.
There's a time and place for push notifications. Intentionally setting boundaries and being thoughtful with your time is important.
Some suggestions
Make heavy and extensive use of Do Not Disturb rules on as many platforms as possible; on mobile devices, it's often possible to automatically enable DND during calendar events as well as enable it while you sleep. Mark yourself as unavailable in Slack (or Teams or XMPP or ____) outside of work hours. Disable push notifications for YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, etc. Maybe consider using alternative clients for those services that are more user-respecting in general.
Get an RSS reader! Please!
They allow you to subscribe to multiple sources of information — like news websites, YouTube channels, blogs, etc. — and aggregate that content into one place. You can read what you want when you want without having anything thrust in your face by The Algorithm™. Depending on the reader, you can sort sources into categories or folders that allow you to focus on one thing at a time rather than being treated to a firehose of the internet.
If you're looking for a service, check out Feedbin, NewsBlur, Feeder, Feedly, and Inoreader. Be thoughtful about enabling notifications though.
If you're into self-hosting, I very highly recommend yarr. At the time of writing, I've been using yarr for 6 months and don't see myself switching any time soon. I only wish it had a maximum content width so reading was more pleasant on wide screens and that the theme would switch based on your system theme.
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I've seen and heard 30 minutes cited many times from sources I remember trusting, but I can't remember exactly which sources they were. After a quick search, The Muse says It Takes Nearly 30 Minutes to Refocus After You Get Distracted. ↩︎