Notification candy

Before I started writing this I took a few spins of my notification cycle. It goes like this.

Personal email, work email, slack, twitter, facebook, linkedin, old email that I don't use anymore, twitter, asana, twitter, slack, personal email.

I wish I was making that up. I'm not.

The truth is I have a notification addiction. Little red dots in the corners of apps are like M&M's I can't wait to eat.

While it's easy to fret about what this cycle does to my brain, what's really happening here is character revelation—I'm someone who wants to be wanted.

Little red dots and numbers of unread emails in parentheses remind me that someone, somewhere wants me, or, at least, my attention. What's more seductive than being the object of someone else's desire? Even if that someone is just Amazon letting me know my package is on its way.

I am the rat. These apps are my maze. And drops of notification sugar taste oh so sweet.