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My Work



The Rabbit Hole, Volume Two


Challenge 47


Challenge 45




Overnotified

by Dennis M. Myers, 05/24/2022

My phone chirps, then dings. My phone then rings and messages are everywhere. The chirp is the text message reminding me I have an eye appointment. The ding is the email reminding me of the same appointment. The ringing was also them, and they left me a nice message, reminding me of my eye appointment.

The Information Age has entered it's Overnotification era. My phone dings again, then yet another time. This time a popup from my security app telling me one of my cameras has a low battery, followed by an email telling me the same thing. I decide to try to suggest to the security camera company to allow people to choose what method of notification to use. No feedback email address was provided, but a chat service was. The AI behind the chat couldn't wrap it's head around the concept of me wanting to suggest a change to the software. Frustrating and useless.

Imagine where this may lead. A young woman is walking through the city wearing the latest in augmented reality glasses, listening to her favorite new album, getting a little exercise.

Her wrist tingles. She glances at her bio-monitor watch and sees it is a reminder of an appointment with her endocrinologist in one week. Her vision is momentarily blocked by a pop-up reminder in her augmentation goggles, reminding her she has an appointment in one week with her endocrinologist. Her hip buzzes. She taps her glasses and reads the email that just came in, then selects her phone from the menu, and reads the short text message reminding her of the same. Her music is interrupted by an overly emotional voice, reminding her of her endocrinologist appointment in one week. She sighs and begins to walk again, only to have reminders placed on several surfaces by her augmented reality goggles, so she won't forget her appointment with the endocrinologist in one week.

All I am asking for is the ability to select one method of notification and halt all the others.

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