We report from the Do Not Disturb Challenge where 30 volunteers disabled notification alerts for 24 hours across all devices. The effect of the absence of notifications on the participants was isolated through an experimental study design: we compared self-reported feedback from the day without notifications against a baseline day. The evidence indicates that notifications have locked us in a dilemma: without notifications, participants felt less distracted and more productive. But, they also felt no longer able to be as responsive as expected, which made some participants anxious. And, they felt less connected with one’s social group. In contrast to previous reports, about two third of the participants expressed the intention to change how they manage notifications. Two years later, half of the participants are still following through with their plans.

1. PRODUCTIVE, ANXIOUS, LONELY
24 HOURS WITHOUT PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
Luz Rello
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Martin Pielot
Telefonica Research
Barcelona, Spain
Pushing, predicting or suggesting? -- ACM MobileHCI, 4th - 7th September, Vienna, Austria

2. NOTIFICATIONS

3. Business Office Home Office Workstation Notebook (CC0)
http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Business-Office-Home-Office-Workstation-Notebook-
 20 information workers disabled
Outlook notifications for one week
 Focus disrupted in ¼ of the cases
 All re-enabled notifications
Iqbal and Horvitz (2010) Notifications and Awareness: …

4. Kushlev et al. (2016) "Silence Your Phones": …
 Higher levels of inattention
and hyperactivity.
 Lower productivity and
psychological well-beingTwo conditions: minimize and
maximize interruptions
Frustration. By amenclinicsphotos ac . Via Flickr, July 1, 2014

5. THE DO NOT DISTURB STUDY

6. THE DO NOT DISTURB STUDY
https://pixabay.com/en/macbook-notebook-apple-
device-407127/
Tony McNeill. Two boys and an iPad. via Flickr,
June 9, 2009 (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Disable notifications across all contexts & devices
http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Woman-
Smartphone-Blond-Mobile-Phone-Girl-Blonde-

7. QUAL. FEEDBACK TO UNDERSTAND THE
“WHY”

8. WHO WOULD DISABLE
NOTIFICATIONS FOR A WHOLE
WEEK?

9.  When we asked potential participants the same question:
 Reduced to 24 hours to avoid self-selection bias
WHY 24 HOURS

10. METHODOLOGY

11.  Within-subject, counter-balanced order
 Experimental Condition: 24 hours notifications disabled
 Control Condition: 24 hours notifications as usual
 Started in late evening
EXPERIMENT DESIGN

12. ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE

13. POST-HOC INTERVIEW
1. Tamper with the notification settings?
2. Experience to be without notifications?
3. Disable notifications in the future? Why
(not)?

14.  30 participants
 Professional background: white collar jobs
 Age (years): 19 to 56 (M = 28.9, SD = 7.13)
 Gender: 14 female, 16 male
PARTICIPANTS

15. SELECTED RESULTS FROM
QUESTIONNAIRE & INTERVIEW

16. DROP IN ENGAGEMENT, REDUCED RESPONSIVENESS
I forgot to check my phone
for an extended period of
time
P02 “forgot my phone at work”

17. FELT LESS DISTRACTED AND MORE PRODUCTIVE
http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Notebook-Office-Work-Computer-Macbook-Business-1814343
P07 “[it was] easier to concentrate,
especially when working on the
desktop (computer).”

18. MISSING INFORMATION & VIOLATING EXPECTATIONS
P10 “missed a WhatsApp group discussion, where my
group decided to meet to sign a birthday postcard.”
A friend of P12 “was angry, saying that ‘we had a
conversation and you forgot about it’.”

19. https://www.pexels.com/photo/hands-coffee-smartphone-technology-4831/
WORRIED TO MISS IMPORTANT INFORMATION
I felt worried about missing notifications
P04: “was meeting with [a friend] for
lunch, and I knew that I was going to
receive something from her.”

20. https://www.pexels.com/photo/cell-phone-in-hands-
ENGAGED IN MORE FREQUENT CHECKING
I frequently turned on the phone
to check for missed notifications
P12 “was the whole afternoon
with the phone in my hand.”

21. FELT LESS CONNECTED WITH SOCIAL GROUP
Brinks Alo. Week 11/52: How Sweet It is To Be Loved by You. via Flickr, Oct 3, 2010 (CC
I felt connected with
my social group
I felt lonely

22. RELAXING OR STRESSING?
LaurMG. A frustrated man sitting at a desk. via Wikipedia, May 24, 2011 (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Negative: “I even left the screen on not to miss a
friends notification.” (P04)
Positive: “It was amazing! I felt liberated” (P22)
Neutral: “It was not a big deal, since I am usually not
checking notifications and people know that I am not
responsive.” (P25)
Social expectations are main predictor
Key for solution: manage social expectations?

23. POST-STUDY PLANS

24. 9 of 30 participants planned to manage
notifications more consciously
P20 planned to “only keep notifications for the
important things, so people can better reach me“
P26 concluded that “The important apps are
Messenger, Hangout and WhatsApp. The rest
does not require notifications”

25. 13 of 30 participants would use Do Not
Disturb
P24 said that “when I need to really get
things done, I need to turn notifications off”
2 participants planned to keep Do Not
Disturb permanently enabled

26. R2
.. interesting to know how many of the participants
actually followed through with their intention …

27. Of 22 participants who expressed intention to change behavior:
 13 (59.1%) followed through with their plans
• P14 “I have followed through with my original plan of keeping only important
messages from SMS, none from Facebook or other social media.”
 4 (18.2%) followed through partially
• P11 “I disabled for Skype personal, but re-enabled for professional”
 3 (13.6%) did not follow through at all
• P9 “Unfortunately [..]I haven't disabled my Whatsapp group notifications.
Probably I got used to having stress around ;)”
 2 (9.1%) participants did not respond to our inquiry
TWO YEARS LATER

28. HOW CAN WE PREVENT THE TRADEGY OF THE COMMONS?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic

29. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic
CONCLUSIONS
 Notifications can distract and impair productivity
 HOWEVER, disabling notifications has negative effects too
 Cannot keep up with social expectations
 Anxiety to miss important information
 Feeling less connected with others
 Half of the participants changed notification-related
behavior in the long term – Tradegy of the Commons?
Luz Rello
HCII - Carnegie Mellon
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Martin Pielot
Telefonica Research
Barcelona, Spain
PRODUCTIVE, ANXIOUS, LONELY – 24 HOURS WITHOUT NOTIFICATIONS