Screens have spread into almost every home and have become portable enough to sit comfortably in your pocket. We could go on and on about the benefits of technology, but there's more to the story.

There is a battle going on, and it is one for your attention. Most of it takes place beyond your conscious thought. Before you know it, you are not in control of your technology; your technology controls you. The principal way technology gets you to act is through notifications. Let's look at how they work and why you should consider switching them off to prioritize your mental health.

The Weaponization of Notifications

black and white image of apps on phone behind alert icon

From the first mobile ring and text message buzz, mobile notifications have been designed to grab your attention. You can benefit from this in certain situations like when you arrange a plan or go to help family or friends in an emergency.

The problem is that this technique has been refined, developed, and even weaponized. You may think this is an exaggeration, but remember, ad revenue makes up a significant part of the business model of social media and other companies. So, increasing engagement is paramount for online businesses.

Data is considered to be the most valuable resource in the world, according to an article in the Economist. This is what makes social media "free" to use and turned Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) into two of the richest companies in the world.

Given that so much money and potential earnings are involved, perhaps it is less surprising that certain tech designers pioneered a notification system built to maximize profits without any regard for our mental well-being. This system is partially responsible for causing many of the negative effects of social media usage.

Notifications and Dopamine

illustration of young couple sitting on love heart bubbles and texting
Image Credit: Julia Tim/Shutterstock

In interviews, such as a Guardian interview with a former Facebook executive, technology and social media leaders have confessed that they designed their platforms to target psychological weaknesses in people's brains. One of the key areas targeted is the relationship between notifications and dopamine.

According to some studies, your brain releases the chemical dopamine when you experience positive or pleasurable physical and social stimuli. It works like a reward system—dopamine is released after a positive experience which encourages you to repeat that experience.

Given that the science behind dopamine is not entirely established yet, you can think of it as the best current label describing the biochemical happenings in your brain that make you want to repeat what you like doing and avoid what you don't like doing.

While, at its core, it's a highly natural process, social media platforms, in particular, hijack this process by providing you with a potentially endless source of positive social interactions.

These interactions could involve sharing something with a friend, laughing at a video, receiving likes, or even just seeing the colored circle that indicates you have notifications. Then, you also receive some dopamine and a desire to experience all that again.

Woman looking at a man scrolling on his phone

One reason why you end up checking your phone frequently without conscious thought is that you're gambling on the chance of there being a notification and receiving the dopamine high.

Another feature that makes notifications so effective is their coloring and pop-up form. Red, in particular, grabs people's attention. Next, messaging and social apps want you to go through every colored circle in the app to give you the satisfaction (and yes, dopamine) of clearing out the circles and resetting notifications to zero.

This means that you go to answer one message and end up replying to them all. Then, you could end up engaging for hours and hours without intentionally meaning to. As you probably know, you won't feel very good afterward.

Screen Attention Traps

Now that you know a little bit about how notifications can hook your attention, let's look at how notifications are used to form different screen-related attention traps.

The Gaming Attention Trap

While you may be familiar with messaging and social media notifications, notifications within games can be equally effective and addictive. Many games use an achievement system to reward the player for completing or discovering an aspect of the game. When you see the word reward, you should already be thinking of dopamine.

Game designers are now more aware than ever that many small achievement notifications within larger objectives give the player reasons to play just one more round. Just one more round can then easily become five or ten as the smaller and larger objectives draw closer.

4 games console controllers in a blue background

To give an example, Fortnite used to be focused on pitting players against players, and the winner was the last player standing. Now, a seemingly endless list of mini challenges provides you rewards for random things like collecting 10 feathers. You may love playing Fortnite or any game, but pay too much attention to constant reward notifications and your mental health could suffer.

The Internet Stimuli Trap

Another area to be aware of is the constant desire to be entertained or stimulated by new things. Many websites will attempt to notify you of new things to engage with. Notifications can influence your internet surfing habits in negative ways. If you allow a website's notifications on your computer, their notification will ping across your screen to try and grab your attention from whatever you are doing.

You may start to crave seeing that you have notifications and dealing with them all. As a result, your internet surfing habits can stray from engaging with a few things that are beneficial. Instead, you can get caught in loops of viewing new content or dealing with all your notifications.

Before you know it, you have an online routine with regular accompaniments of dopamine, and the whole day or night has passed. When you automatically engage in these habits, it is hit or miss whether they refresh us or make us feel worse.

How to Avoid the Screen Attention Traps

Person doing seated meditation outdoors

To break free of the different attention traps, try to take your attention away from your screen and the colored logos or icons that can provoke automatic behaviors to click on them. When you see a notification, breathe deeply and think on what it is you actually want to do without rushing. If this makes you feel stressed, pay attention only to your deep breaths for a little while.

Notifications, achievements, and suggestions will try to draw you back in but only do so on your terms. Notifications aren't meant to work against you. Instead, they should work for you. That's why, if you're struggling to manage notifications and your attention to them, it may be best to turn off all but the essential notifications. Be sure to check out strategies to reduce your screen time if you're looking to change your tech usage habits.

Choose the Best Notification Setting for You

When you change your notifications settings to suit your needs, you protect yourself from unnecessary distractions and stresses. If you don't want notifications to influence you too much, change their settings in each relevant app so that your phone doesn't buzz or sound for non-emergency messages. It can be a relief just to have time to yourself without sounds invading your thoughts or interrupting your time with others.

Then, you can remove the red pop-ups so the attention-grabbing colors don't influence your decisions. Learn more about how to change your iPhone's notification settings to suit your needs or how to change your Android's notification settings to do better for your mental well-being.

Use Notifications as Tools, Not Distractions

Smartphones, social media, and other tech have default notification settings that are not designed with your mental health in mind. Instead, they inspire automatic action to make you fall into attention traps.

Become aware of aimless technology usage and choose the right notification settings for you to break out of the attention mind games many tech and entertainment companies use. Notifications shouldn't get in the way of your peace of mind. They should be supportive and help you organize and do what you need to do on your own terms and timing.