7 reasons why you should turn off your social media notifications

Social media notifications, Getty Images

It's pretty obvious how fast technology is advancing, isn't it? The last ten years have seen a remarkable advent of new and mindblowing technologies, from smoother running digital devices to exquisite automobiles, automated electric cars, artificial intelligence and machine language, and so on.

Just recently, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook announced his invention of the Metaverse and this has kept many people in awe as to how exactly the metaverse project will look like. But for all that we know, the metaverse is going to attempt to replicate the real world in its own version of virtual reality. That means, we are going to have cars in a virtual world, buildings, pets, etc, and according to Zuckerberg, gaming will be the common way to tend that world and also make wealth in that world. In some ways, wealth in this virtual world may make one rich in the real world but that will not be explored fully in this article.

As mobile phone technology increased, we saw a proportionate increase in the development of social media. Social media app developers developed new cool features to enhance performance, engagement and user satisfaction. However, do you know you don't have to use all of these new features? Social media notifications are one of those features and you will see in this article some reasons why you should stop these notifications from intrusively disrupting your physical activities.

What Are Social Media Notifications?

Social media notifications, like you may have already known, are alerts from your mobile phone that tells you that you have a new activity from any of your social media apps. It could be a new message, a request or a user interaction with your social media posts or updates.

Social media notifications are supposed to be cool features, yes they are. They keep you updated on what is going on in your social media space, and by extension what is going on in the world but they can also constitute a serious menace when you least expected it.

A study report by Kim and Baek in 2018 found that the primary reason why smartphone social media apps, as well as non-social media apps, use push notifications is to create a smarter and more intrusive way to communicate to the user and create greater engagement. In other words, the app developers want more of your time and attention. It favours them in how much user retention, user engagement and consequently, their business.

For example, with more than 2.6 billion monthly active users, Facebook has risen to become the most popular social media worldwide and this has also translated to higher revenue from advertising on the platform. The key secret is, by driving user activity, getting more active users, Facebook makes more money. So, why shouldn't the social media notifications be louder and get more of your attention?

Reasons You Should Turn Off Your Social Media Notifications

As you may have already seen here, social media notifications can be helpful but they were not all built for you in mind. Part of the intention here is to keep you glued to the media which can have some detrimental effects as well.

Here are some important reasons why you should turn off your social media notifications.

1. Gives you fewer distractions

Social media notifications were created to keep you always on the media interacting with friends and followers. This is what the developers want but is it what you truly want?

You are trying to focus on your work task and the next thing you hear is an annoying ring from your phone signalling that you have a new notification from any of the social media apps installed. This can distract you from your line of thoughts, especially when it has become habitual for you to check your phone at every notification.

Turning off push notifications and notification alerts in your phone keeps you less distracted and more focused on your tasks at hand.

2. Makes you more productive

With fewer distractions and more focus on your specific tasks, you are sure to have increased productivity. 

From my personal experience from turning off my social media notifications for over two years now, I have noticed a significant increase in my productivity level measured by my efficiency in accomplishing productive tasks on my mobile phone, for example, reading for school or general knowledge on the internet, doing research, watching to a productive video, etc.

If your social media notifications are on, they might interrupt you when you are trying to study with your mobile device and analyze some critical productivity information on your phone.

Turning off your social media notifications also frees you from distractions when you engage in productive tasks outside your mobile phone. That sense of discipline and focus makes you more productive at your workplace, school and personal projects than when your notifications were allowed to pop in at any time possible.

3. Puts you in control

There is nothing more important in anyone's life than being in control of their lives and endeavours. Push notifications come to take that away from you. They are intrusive and enslaving. Social media notifications always make you want to check your mobile phone even when you have promised to stay away for some time.

It is sometimes difficult to turn off your social media notifications perpetually. You turn them off today and the next day they are on again. It's not as if your phone turns them off itself but because of how enslaved social media notifications may have made you, you find yourself turning them on again because you don't want to miss out on the important updates. Wait right here, I will tell you what the important updates are very soon.

4. Keeps you focused on the priorities

What are the priorities? What are the important updates? These are what every one of us should focus on and trust me, these priorities are not those social media updates that come in every other second.

When you are doing some work, this work becomes your priority at the moment. Every other thing should be considered secondary. By turning off your social media notifications, you become more focused on the priorities at hand.

How do you know important updates? When someone truly wants to contact me for something truly important or urgent, they should call me or text me. That way you consciously filter important updates from the unimportant ones.

5. Makes you more attentive to your friends and loved ones

Spending quality time with your friends and loved ones is a priority. You do not always have the time to be with them but whenever you are with them, you should make the moment count.

Someone can be physically present but not actually present. Social media notifications take away your presence even though you are physically present with them. This has to change and it begins by turning off your social media notifications.

6. It teaches you to be more deliberate about your decisions

One important lesson you will learn from turning off your social media notifications is that you will have more control over your decisions. You realise that you are responsible for the things that you allow into your life and the things you let go of. This is a simple lesson but it cuts across all areas of your life, even beyond mobile phone and social media use.

7. Reduces your anxiety

You are not always in a relaxed mood all the time. Sometimes, you may have a lot of work in your hand already and you might not be in for any more. At such times, distractions increase your anxiety and make you less efficient in your jobs.

Imagine you are an office worker who is expected to submit volumes of work the next day to your boss. You are anxious about how to complete the job so as to get a good review or a promotion from your boss, or to avoid being suspended or fired in the worst-case scenario. Then, someone who you know as annoying and distracting walks into your house and asks to sit. How do you feel, especially if it might be a little difficult to drive them out immediately?

You become more anxious because you now have a new problem to attend to, further compounding those you are already wrestling with. This is exactly what social media notifications do, they add new problems to those you already have on the table.

Which Notifications Can You Allow On Your Phone For More Productivity?

Certainly, I didn't mean you should turn off all notifications from your phone. There are some notifications I have found useful and beneficial over the years and I think you should allow them on your phone too. Here is a list of these notification alerts you should allow on your phone;

1. Notifications from your work email app: You don't want to miss out on important updates at work or some contracts or business offers. Do you? I always anticipate email updates from my email apps (Gmail, Yahoo!, etc) because I always find them useful, motivating or profitable.


2. Of course, you should leave your SMS and call alerts on except if you are in another important meeting.


3. LinkedIn: Not all social media are counter-productive. LinkedIn is a professional social media that opens you to a world of amazing opportunities. You should leave the notifications on except if you have some other pressing thing(s) to attend to at the moment.


4. If there are any great reasons, you can consider leaving the notifications for some of your social media apps. For example, if you receive updates about your schoolwork or job from WhatsApp, you might want to consider leaving the notifications from WhatsApp on.

Conclusion

There is a good and a bad side to everything but maintaining a stable balance is key to productivity. Social media notifications have a good side notwithstanding but you need to also put their intrusiveness in check by turning off your social media notifications. In this article, you have seen seven reasons why your social media notifications need to be well-regulated. Take action now and see how much more productive you can become.