But I Smile Anyway…

Today, our prompt is courtesy of the spectacular Sadje. Thank you, Sadje! Please be sure to visit Sadje’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already.

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 12th, 2025 is “notifications.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

There was a time when my life was ruled by notifications, then there was the time before that when notifications meant nothing.

It was a word rarely used in my world as a youngster.

Then Social Media happened.

But smart phones didn’t happen until later.

No.

The first time notifications became a real thing for me was when the likes of Friends Reunited was born. Then I’d log in to my email, after what felt like forever waiting for the dial up internet to connect, and check to see if I had any new emails.

And then log into Friends Reunited to see if there were any notifications that someone had ‘found’ me, or responded to a request of mine.

It was an exciting time, reaquainting ourselves. But still, many weren’t on the internet, so you felt quite special that you had this chance to reconnect with certain people.

Facebook was the next big one, for me.

Logging in and getting the notifications that someone had ‘poked’ you. (Remember that? At the same time fun, but annoying. Did you know its back on Facebook, now?) Or you had a request for a new person wanting to befriend you.

So many others followed, including the now defunct Twitter.

And the advent of smartphones brought all this social media and more to our fingertips whenever we wanted.

That, and much better internet connectivity.

You’d get excited to hear the ping, be it a message, email or a notification from one of the apps, telling you someone wanted to get in touch with you.

It was fun.

For a while.

Not having to wait until you got to a computer to see what was going on in the world of the ether…

Then came the obsession.

Every time I heard a ping and saw a red number hovering above one of the apps, I had a compulsion to check it, then and there, responding straight away.

It was okay.

For a while.

And then it began to disrupt my sleep.

I’d wake early, so I had an hour to check on all the apps, from general social media to my blog, reading, liking, commenting, responding, before I got the kids up and ready for school.

Hubby Dearest began to worry there was more to me constantly being on my phone or computer than there actually was.

I had to draw a line somewhere.

So, I changed my phone settings to not show the red notifications badges on the majority of my apps.

I silenced the pings.

I knew there would always be something in the ever-growing set of Social Media apps on my phone, but I had more important things to do, like actually living the life I had, rather than ‘doom scrolling’ once I had checked all the accumulated notifications. (Because now I didn’t get that ‘ping’, there were more to check through whenever I did go into the apps.)

For a while the only notification that meant anything was the new Text Message, when a certain person in my life was going through a very tough time, and the only way they would communicate was by text. I had to unsilence that ping. I had to be there for that person the moment they needed me, be it day or night. It is much, much less, in the present time, and they are in a better place, so that pull is less, too.

And now, I still get excited when I see a notification on my phone, but it doesn’t rule my life. I don’t have to look at my phone, first thing in the morning, other than to silence my alarm, I don’t have a panic attack if my phone is in the other room. And I can fall asleep, not having checked it last thing at night.

I’d say I was a bit of a notification addict at one time, but I am proud to say that is no longer the case!

Daily Prompt – JusJoJan the 12th, 2025