Why do I put my phone on Silent?
Before I answer that, I want each one of you to go into any of your frequently used app on your Smartphone. Could be Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat. Possibly a social media app that tricks you into feeling you are connected to the world. Notice something very similar?
Do you see a pending notification? Do you see a friend waiting on you for a reply? Do you see a recommended video from a channel you never subscribed to? Do you see a streak? See the similarity?
#FOMO is being weaponized as a tool to make you feel that people are waiting on you. Your primitive instinct to seek interaction is being gratified with probably something that is not informative but seductive.
I grew up in Mumbai Suburbs where load shedding happened daily or if rich enough weekly, and if lucky enough as a kid, at evening. There was something very beautiful about not having electricity for an hour. Everyone came out side their trapped houses to have a chat, a conversation. No work that can be done even if need to be.
Now, electricity is pretty much 24/7, so is Internet. Getting that hour back seems to never happen. I am tied to my bed with Internet as the leash and phone as my collar.
Notifications by definition should notify you about an event that concerns you. That is it. No. Facebook(should I be a Meta and call it Meta?), I don’t care if XYZ’s post is trending, neither do I care if you think I need to buy a new collection from a store I never asked to follow. Notifications should only tell me about what I need not what I want.
But this doesn’t improve engagement rates, impressions, and effectively profits. Somewhere a telephone became a mobile phone became a smart phone and is now becoming this pocket sized Salesman asking me to order a new pair of shoes.
You get the point. I get too many unwanted notifications. But is that it? No.
Every time, my #FOMO is triggered, I open an app (usually Instagram). There was a time when Instagram was naïve. When all it showed me was a cheesy picture/video/dubsmash. But gradually, we have been trained to accept the explore page as our home page. Not to mention the home page feels less homely with all the recommendations. Explore pages are such a time consuming engine. Give me thousand 30 second videos and I happily engage, but a 10 minute video seems a waste of time. Also, those 30 seconds constitute an intellect of a 1 month old donkey.
We probably are all aware of this. We had the same concerns when we got the Idiot Box (TV). But why is this different? Well TV never was essential but my Smartphone is. Because on some level it still functions as a telephone.
How do I solve this problem? I put it on silent. Is it a good habit? No. Is there a better way? Probably. Does it work for me? Hardly so.
I wish, there comes this load shedding where the smartphones go dead, and the society comes alive. Until then, if you are reaching out to me, a mail via USPS probably would get my attention.
