Taming Tech: Tip #10
TIP #10: TAME YOUR NOTIFICATIONS
In the late 1800’s a Russian scientist named Ivan Pavlov was studying the digestive process in dogs. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Well, maybe not.
In his research he observed that dogs started salivating when they could see or smell food. This was a natural biological response, but Pavlov accidentally discovered something he wasn’t looking for. He noticed that the dogs started salivating at the sight of his assistant who would usually bring them food, even when he didn’t have food to give them.
Don’t worry, the dogs weren’t thinking about eating the assistant, but Pavlov discovered that this was a learned behavior, or a conditioned response. The dogs associated the presence of the assistant with the arrival of food.
Pavlov diverted his studies and began to experiment with the sound of a metronome. The metronome alone didn’t have any effect on the dogs but then he began feeding them at the same time as the sound. In time, the dogs associated the metronome with food and just hearing the sound would cause them to salivate even when food was not present.
This is now referred to as classical conditioning in psychology and it also works on humans. So, what does it have to do with smartphones?
We have been conditioned to respond to the vibration or sounds of notifications on our smartphones. You may not start salivating, at least I hope you don’t, but there are other physiological responses to this stimulus. You are not anticipating food, so what do you think you’ll be getting at the conditioning sound of notifications?
One of the physiological responses happening is a small dopamine hit in your brain. This is a result of an emotional response to the sound of the notification. There is an anticipation of something exciting, or something dreadful, something that makes you happy, or something that makes you sad. It might lead to feeling anxious or it may result in elation. You may have been waiting to get a response from someone or find out that someone reacted to a social media post, a text, or an email. These anticipated emotions are like the meal that Pavlov’s dogs were waiting for. We don’t salivate, but our brain triggers the release of dopamine.
When this kind of stimulation continues to happen on a regular basis, you are being conditioned for certain responses. The first is a compulsion to check the notification even if you are doing something else important like having a meal with your family or having a conversation with someone in person.
This can lead to habit formation, or habituation. This problem is now referred to as “checking behavior”. It is the conditioned response to a conditional stimulus. This can lead to excessive use of your smartphone, habitual distraction, and dependency.
It also negatively affects the people around you who are interrupted or ignored because of your conditioned response to phone notifications.
How can you tame your notifications? Simple – turn them off! Go to your settings and take back control over your attention. The same studies also show that you can be “unconditioned”, or a process referred to as extinction. Get rid of the metronome altogether or stop feeding the dog every time they hear the metronome. These different approaches are effective at changing the response.
There are notification settings on your phone, and they are usually set by the app designers to automatically be on rather than off. The app makers know what they are doing. They have studied the psychology of conditioning and are leveraging it for their own purposes. Stop being Pavlov’s dogs and don’t let others train your behaviors.
