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Sometimes it's not as easy as just quitting facebook. This argument comes up a lot, but it's a solution that works entirely on a case-by-case basis. When I had
by bpchaps 11y ago
Sometimes it's not as easy as just quitting facebook. This argument comes up a lot, but it's a solution that works entirely on a case-by-case basis.
When I had a smart phone, the methods of communicating with me were email, work email, work IM, facebook, skype, hangouts, phone, and text. Because of work, it wasn't possible to do airplane mode and it wasn't possible to do a sleep-mode bypass for specific phone numbers because of the oncall situations.
The only way I could find to manage notifications properly was to essentially create a black list for my contacts and blacklist all apps. It worked up until somebody on the black list needs to reach me, so they get added to the white list to avoid the issue. Oh, shit, they're texting me while I'm trying to work - back to the whitelist!
It eventually just becomes an incredibly tedious task to manage your notifications properly - which in itself is a dang distraction.
Agreed on leaving phones elsewhere - just as long as you live in a decent area. Some of the most awkward times I've had recently are while hanging out with others where everyone is on their phones and I can really only just twiddle my thumb. Bringing the subject only results in "hipster" comments, rather than an actual discussion.
- EC1 11y agoI thought the same way until I realized that 99% of the people I'm bantering with online are only in my life because they are accessible. Neither of us would ever put the effort towards actually meeting up and hanging out. I only have a couple of people I want to retain contact with so ditching FB and all other chats was simple. I'm able to actually DO things now instead of being in this weird digital limbo where my life is a moving data point and social media is the measuring stick. I couldn't come up with a good answer to "Who actually are these people I chat with all day?"
- wongarsu 11y agoMany people have two phones (and two accounts for every relevant messaging service) for that reason; one phone for normal communication and one that people are told to only contact in urgent cases. If you manage to make people adhere to that you can put the normal phone in airplane mode as needed while still being reachable for important things.
- eli 11y agoAndroid and iPhone both have software settings that can mute calls and texts from anyone who isn't on a whitelist. I use the "Blocking Mode" on Android all the time: if you call me after 11pm and aren't on a short list, you go right to voicemail.
- wongarsu 11y agoFor some cases that works great, but whitelists fall short when the same people text you both for important and unimportant reasons.
- bpchaps 11y agoI actually tried that for a bit. Biggest problem is.. then you have two phones in your pocket. Since it's possible to send a text to an email address, I just tell folk to shoot me an email with anything important. The conversation can sometimes get weird when they ask, "Why can't I just send a text to your computer?". I'm pretty curious about where that dissonance comes from, as it's happened maybe 4 or 5 times already.
- derefr 11y agoDo you really need to get a dumbphone to avoid all this nonsense, though—or do you just need to get everyone to treat you as if you have a dumbphone? Which you might easily do by, say, telling them that you have a dumbphone, whether you do or not. If nobody thinks they can reach you over all these notification protocols, then you don't have to manage the notifications—even if you are, secretly, reachable over those protocols.