Become liberated and feel amazing!
I’ve been liberated and I hope that I can liberate you RIGHT NOW!
Data is the new oil and companies want your data for all sorts of reasons, like you it became the norm to check my device(s) for notifications every so often, actually I did it subconsciously.
I know that you are the same, be it Amazon, Ebay, SMS, Whatsapp, Facebook, Linkedin etc etc… the list goes on, we all have these notifications updating us constantly.
Block the pointless notifications, update your marketing preferences and retrain your brain not to seek dopamine hits from your device(s)!
Watch the film
After watching a film on Netflix called The Social Dilemma I realised that I had become a victim (just like you have) to big brands and their notifications, I (used to) get them all day everyday and would even stop talking to my kids to read them!
Even though I am an I.T expert, even though I fully understand how companies record and save our data, I still ended up being victim to it. The main things that I took away from the film were:
- I have been groomed to check my phone for notifications
- I had been programmed to sit and scroll like a zombie no matter who the source was
- The research that I was doing was being fuelled by biased sources, the more I searched a topic, the more AI algorithms would put similar content in front of me. See for yourself, search for a topic on YouTube and then see if you don’t get fed the same stuff from there on in skewing the results that are returned.
- Brands are taking my (our) data, storing it, mining it, using it and making money from it while at the same time manipulating me (you) to give them more.
How can you become liberated from the planet sized snowball that is BIG DATA!
Become liberated and take these 3 steps…
1. Update your device(s) notification settings and switch everything off unless its really important like a text message. This will stop your phone from notifying you when an email lands (you check them anyway right) or a new product comes out that you ‘might’ be interest in. This will massively reduce the time that you spend dismissing useless notifications and reprogramming your mind not to seek a dopamine hit from your notifications.
2. Now login to all those accounts that email (notify) you such as Amazon, Linkedin, Facebook etc and turn off the notifications. Do you really want to be notified when a price changes on ebay? This in itself will save you massive amounts of time sifting through unwanted emails. Don’t get fooled into thinking that you need to know when the next must have product hits the shelves or when someone messages you on Facebook!
3. This step is all about reprogramming your habits, now, each time you reach for your device, ask yourself why you are picking up your device, do you have a text message? Is it to check an app for notifications? Justify each session and reason with yourself as to why you are going to use the device. Its scary to see just how many pointless times you reach for your device!
For an advanced way to liberate yourself from the planet sized snowball that is BIG DATA, why not plan how long you will use each service for per day and better still, schedule times when you will use them. For example, you could check your emails once in the morning, then every 3 hours thereafter, this will stop you from pointlessly checking your device every hour for more notifications.
I hope that you will become liberated and make further steps towards making your data even more private. Remember, stop the pointless notifications on your device and login to all those accounts and change your email notification settings and free up bags of wasted times, lastly watch the film for a much better explanation than I can give you. If you wanted to look into this further, you could look into securing your email accounts using better email service providers such as Proton Mail. Or taking steps to stop companies using your data by refusing cookies and opting out of targeted marketing.