Curb Your Digital Addiction (The Butlerian Handbook, part one)
For this first part of the Butlerian Handbook to Surviving the Digital World in the Age of Tech Billionaires, we're going to do something extremely easy, even for the less tech-savvy people, but that will have a strong positive impact already.
Welcome to the first post of The Butlerian Handbook to Surviving the Digital World in the Age of Tech Billionaires!
Yes, I know it's a long title. And you're probably wondering what it's all about.
Read the link below and it will all make sense.
David Billa
Is that it? Did you read the page above?
Great!
Now, let's take the first step toward regaining control of our digital lives. To avoid scaring off those of you who are less tech-savvy, we're going to start with something very easy that will make a big difference in your digital life.
Turn off your notifications!
Grab your phone. Do you see all the notifications that distract you and call you to your phone all the time, even when you're busy? Especially when you're busy!
Turn them off! Do it! Don't be afraid.
All they do is make you use your phone more than you should. They're also an attack on your attention span. They decide when you use your phone, not you.
Smartphones are great tools, but more and more apps are making phones—or rather, the apps themselves—decide when and how you use the phone. Who is the tool? Is it the phone, or is it you? The phone, right?
So, retake control of your phone and decide when you use it. Don't let the apps decide for you.
A few caveats: I'm not saying you should turn off all your phone's notifications. I'm talking about the ones that draw you to your phone unnecessarily, like a moth to a candle. Yes, I'm talking about social media especially.
To give you an example, here is the notification situation on my phone:
- I deleted most of my social media apps—more on that another day—and turned off notifications for the ones I kept. Now, I use them when I decide to, and not the other way around.
- New apps: same treatment as social media. I deleted most of them. Now, I just go to their websites when I want to read the news. I only kept one app with notifications: the NHK World app. I left the notifications on because you can control what you receive, and they only send me important news. I rarely get more than one notification a day. The main reason I kept it is for earthquake alerts. When you live in Japan, you want to know about them in a timely fashion.
- Messaging apps: They are the only apps where I left notifications on, but I set them on silent, except if it's a message from my close family (my wife, kids, and parents).
Most messaging apps allow you to fine tune the notifications this way. - Reminder app: I kept the notifications for this one for obvious reasons. However, I decide if and when I receive reminders. That's the whole purpose of the app!
- Most system notifications are on, but they're pretty rare. It's usually better to know what's going on with your phone if there's an issue.
- Most other apps have notifications turned off, as they are usually unnecessary. However, important and urgent notifications, such as weather alerts, are still enabled, especially during typhoon season.
See, it's very easy. It's not as drastic as it sounds. If you do this, it'll make a big difference in your life.
You can adjust the thing according to your needs. If you're in Europe, for example, you probably don't need to be informed about earthquakes or typhoons in real time.
However, the most important notifications to turn off, regardless of where you live, are the ones from social media.
As you probably know, social media is a great tool, but it's also very dangerous and destructive (I have a feeling we'll talk about it often in the Butlerian Handbook), and it takes control of your phone usage more often than not.
Actually, I'll finish with one last piece of advice related to social media.
If you use social media, or know someone who does, I highly recommend watching the documentary The Social Dilemma by Jeff Orlowski. It's on Netflix. The link below should direct you to it.
That's all for today.
I hope you liked what you read.
Oh, and don't hesitate to share your experiences and advice on the topics discussed here.
See you soon for more.
Thanks for reading.
Best,
David
More reading
After the posts, I'll post interesting articles here that are related to the overall idea of what the Butlerian Handbook stands for, even if they're not necessarily related to the topic of the post. For example, this one today. I advise you to subscribe to JA Westenberg's blog, too. It's one of the blogs that makes me think the most right now.
JA Westenberg
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