I swear the notification bubbles on my mobile devices breed like bunnies. No matter how many times I try to get rid of them all, they reappear within minutes (or is it seconds) and there happens to be more of them than before!
While I'm being quite facetious in that comparison, the truth of the matter is the various apps are designed to get your attention - and what better way than to make you think there's something you can't miss.
And let's be honest - I'm a complete mark.
During my early days with social media - Twitter and Facebook were my entry points - my goal was to not only stay in touch with anyone I'd ever met where possible, but to expand my circle of just-about-anyone-who-I-talk-to. Which as a self-professed introvert, was made easy by a screen and a keyboard.
I was that guy who'd poke you. And I'd await for you to poke me back. So I could poke you again. And you could poke back. Poke, poke, poke.
It never occurred to me back then that I was providing those behind the apps the means to show what grabbed my attention in the moment. Nor did it even cross my mind that the apps were also feeding back everything I might've been up to, searching for, engaging with, and all that in between so they could in turn take that intelligence to grab even more of my attention.
Not that any of that would've mattered in the moment - I just wanted to see that bubble telling me that someone "liked" me or had something to say.
Yet as we fast-forward to where I am today, while those little red bubbles still trigger something in my head, I'm also left with disappointment when many of them are simply another means of trying to get my attention...
"Hey... you missed this post from someone we think you might be interested in talking about that thing you were interested in at some point or were interested-adjacent in. Why not reply?"
Despite constantly seeing these intrusions and constantly experiencing disappointment, I continued to check those bubbles every time one crossed my phone. What if it were legitimately someone wanting to engage with me and me in turn with them?!
But not anymore.
I hope.
As of this morning, I have removed every social media app from my phone save for Mastodon and Gander Social.
Why those two?
- Mastodon - this was my first pivot away from the bad place and while I let that garden wither, it's still an environment I support. And yes, it's the vanilla app though I'm open to suggestions.
- Gander - I'm just a Canadian who hopes that one of the maple syrup scented alternatives takes off, and decided this one would get my support. And the reason it stays on the phone is that there's no web interface yet.
And why not delete the rest of the accounts too?
I'm just not there yet.
I have enjoyed my time on Bluesky. And TikTok has fed me all sorts of recipe videos that inspired me to start cooking. But my theory is that I don't need to outright delete my presence to stop the notification bubbles from harassing me, and that's my goal.
So to return to my initial statement, the bunnies can live those happy lives. They just get to live them elsewhere.
And not on my phone.