What is the first thing we do when we open our eyes in the morning? We probably look at our phone screen. Check the notifications that have accumulated overnight, maybe just check the time. But the strange thing is that most of the time we don't do it consciously. It has almost become a reflex. We are drawn into the digital world in the early hours of the morning and we cannot get out of it throughout the day. But how much of this is by choice and how much is just digital noise being dumped on us?
Whether we are social media users or just spend our day using a few apps, we are all exposed to a barrage of notifications. Most of the time, a series of notifications pop up on the screen for things we don't really care about or even read. “There's a new update!", "This person shared something!", "You took this many steps today!" and many more. It is not enough to turn them off once, the same scenario happens the next day and the day after that.
Then there are these algorithms. They pretend to know us better than we know ourselves, but what they really do is confine us to a narrow circle. Once we have seen something on a platform, the same kind of content starts to rain down on us. Even if we don't like it, just because we stayed a second longer, similar ones are lined up. After a while, we start to ask ourselves, "Do I really like this content, or am I being forced to watch it?” Perhaps many of us still do not question this.
Photo by Brian J. Tromp on Unsplash
You have probably been on a shopping site looking for a product. Hah, get over it, now you see their adverts everywhere. Talking to a few friends about a topic is one thing, but seeing suggestions on that topic in your social media feed the next day is quite another. Thinking "Are they listening to me?" is no longer a conspiracy theory, because they really are.
Furthermore, not only advertising, but also the news, popular debates and “What everyone is talking about?” that we are constantly bombarded with online is part of the digital boredom we are exposed to. Sometimes we don't want to watch or follow anything, but there is always a new series, a new scandal or a new trend. Is it possible to escape? It seems very difficult.
Just when we get used to an application, an interface, a system layout, updates come out and everything changes. Buttons are moved, a feature we are used to disappears, we get a notification saying “We have updated for a better experience”, even though we cannot use it as before. But we never complained in the first place. Nothing bothered us before. And yet they say “You have to adapt to this change”. Because we are not the owners of what we use, we are their customers.
Then there are the famous “We've updated our privacy policy” messages. They appear with every new update, every new application. Nobody reads these long texts because, even if you do, there is nothing you can do about it. Either you accept it or you cannot use the application. There is no other choice.
Now I would like to touch on another issue: Not being able to fully own digital products. I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but it's actually a striking part, so I felt the need to mention it at the end of my previous narrative.
My thoughts always come back to the analogue-digital comparison, but this is the truth. You will also understand if you think about your monthly payments. The music app you use every month, the rent for the film streaming platform... Isn't it strange to feel the need to pay for them all the time? We used to buy films and they were ours. We had a physical copy and we could use it however and whenever we wanted.
Now we have made it an inescapable habit to make regular payments in order not to be confronted with advertisements or notifications. We felt the need to adapt because it seemed faster and more “technological” at the time, but we also fell victim to it. Concepts such as actually owning, holding and sharing things have disappeared. “Less but more” is just an empty phrase in this context. It is annoying to pay for a lot of things we think we own and not be able to fully control them.
For example, we wanted to buy our favourite author's latest book, but we couldn't find a physical copy. Don't worry, technology is here to help. Thanks to its global accessibility, we paid for it on the platform we use and got it quickly. But what's this? Has there been a dispute between the author and the e-reader brand? Or is the author involved in a scandal? The book is no longer in our digital library. Even though we paid for it. We have no say in the matter. We paid for the reader, we paid for the book, but whoever has the digital power has the final say. This leads us either to go back to physical and analogue products or to seek access through other means (certain websites).
As we can see, we cannot say that we have a completely free choice. Do we consume the content we want, or are we forced to consume what is offered to us? Are we the true owners of what we receive? These are the two key questions. At some point we have to stop and think and ask ourselves what we really need.
Minimise / turn off notifications,
Limit what the algorithms suggest / turn off tracking features if there are any,
Don't let the ads get to us,
And in addition to selectively consuming social media content,
Not turning away from physical products altogether,
Trying to be an informed user,
Protect and store our digital purchases in offline spaces.
We can do these things. But here's the thing: we have to make a real effort to break out of digital boredom. Because the system is designed to keep us in. There's an exit door, but they're not showing it to us. So sometimes we have to open that door with our own hands. That's why we have to stop and ask ourselves: “What do I really want?” We want to have products, but we should not be the product.
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