I turned off WhatsApp notifications for a month
Whenever I'm in another part of the world, I'd often marvel at the refreshing feeling of not having anyone text me simply because they all exist in my home timezone. I could still go about my day, meet the people I want to meet, but only chat with people in the morning or late at night. It's freeing, it's relieving, and it's awesome.
COVID, though, has ruined any chances of me doing that anytime soon. So I just did the closest thing I could do travelling to another timezone.
I took some paid time off and turned off my WhatsApp notifications.
It was quite impulsive, really. My phone has always been on "do not disturb" mode, which means that I don't really get buzzes for incoming texts. I did this because I've always felt overwhelmed at the pace in which texts and notifications come in. But I still wanted to see what messages await me, so every single text goes to my notification bar. When I see them, I want to instantly reply them, in case I forget. I thought I'd hit some sort of plateau because I'm at 100+ unread chats (yes, really) but the texts never stopped coming in.
So I just decided to give up altogether, just for a week. And goodness, did it feel good.
I’ve decided to not be bad at texting anymore — I’ve decided I’m going to be terrible at it. I’m turning off my WhatsApp notifications for my whole week off. The first 24 hours have been awesome. Don’t think I’ll have trouble keeping this up
— Rebecca Isjwara (@beckyisj) August 29, 2021
I didn't quit WhatsApp cold turkey. I still had it on my phone, and I still accessed it on my laptop via WhatsApp web. I didn't set any time limits for myself, either.
This honestly felt extreme when I did it. After all, I've already been minimizing WhatsApp notifications as much as possible: I put "high-stress" chats in the archive (which, thanks to WhatsApp's latest update, stays archived even as new chats come in). I mute every single group chat (they're likely not talking to you anyways). My "last seen" is off (thanks to rude classmates who would give me flak for not replying texts). But I did it anyway.
And unsurprisingly, I didn't miss it, nor did I compulsively checked my WhatsApp. I kind of just breathed and noticed the world a little bit more.
It's been over a month now since I first turned it off, and I don't think I'm ever going back. In fact, I actually turned off my Instagram notifications at the end of that first week after feeling the weight of WhatsApp off of my shoulders.
Life is so good without the dings.
Some of my favourite content that's related to this topic:
🔖 Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain by Kevin Roose via The New York Times
📖 Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation by Kevin Roose
⏳ How to Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price
🎥 This Completely Changed How I Use Social Media by Matt D'avella via YouTube
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