My notifications are turned off. Completely turned off. Not even Phone or Messages on iOS will notify me. I’ve been trying it for a few days.
Immediate theory—notifications can only come into existence from a position of scarcity. Notifications are a cultural reinforcement of a scarcity mindset. The need to be alerted about the immediacy of the moment because there’s a scarce resource depleting.
A forced synchronization in a medium that would be fine to be async. An interruption of the present moment. From the same hardware that can store and retrieve information more accurately and readily than our brains. Over long periods of time.
Presence and receipt. Does technology actually need these? Do they supplement true presence in a meaningful way? Is that even possible?
Assume it can be. What would it look like? We know a green dot communicating presence is insufficient. Read receipts place stress on responding. Or explaining why a response cannot be timely.
This could all be async and we’d be fine. Except my mobile order. I need the coffee shop to receive that notification and produce my goods on time.
Published: 2023-02-26