Kiwis feeling panicked over phone notifications

RNZ News

22-04-2025

Photo:
123rf
A recent survey from the United States shows half of all adults feel overrun by the number of times their phones pings them with notifications.
Research commissioned by New Zealand telecommunications company 2Degrees also found that 38 percent of Kiwis under the age of 30 feel not just overwhelmed, but panicked and anxious about the number of notifications they get.
Neuroscientist and Digital Wellbeing Expert Kathryn Berkett told
Checkpoint
the data from the US survey is relevant to New Zealand.
"We can get just as many notifications, and we've got teenagers with just the same brains as they have in the US."
The generation most overwhelmed by notifications in the survey was Gen Z, she said.
"One thing we know about the adolescent brain is dopamine, which we all get from those pings, those 75 you got today, you get a little dopamine rush every time," Berkett said.
"Dopamine can be nearly twice as sensitised in adolescence, so of course there's so much more drive to get much more reward."
She said although at first notifications can give a person a dopamine hit, once the notification is opened, anxiety can kick in.
"I don't know if you indulge in a little red wine on the weekend maybe. It feels good at first, but what if you overdo it, or if you don't have it?"
Many notifications are coming from social media, particularly for Gen Z, she said.
"So, informing them that somebody has liked them. Somebody wants to know where they are or be with them," Berkett said.
"That whole connection thing, which is really important to the adolescent brain, but certainly increases the addiction profile and also the unexpected nature of it."
She said being able to control the number of notifications someone receives a day could be positive.
"Obviously, we all want to keep in touch. We all want to be in touch. So, notifications are fantastic," Berkett said.
"But if I choose to go in every half an hour and look at my notifications, I'm still going to find out everything. But I'm in control and that will significantly change the anxiety."
When Berkett does training around self-care, she tells people to restrict the number of notifications they receive late at night.
"We can all get that sort of anxiety from it. But again, it's about if we control it and we're ready to go in and we're nice and calm when we go in, even if it's a negative or difficult thing for work. If we're in the right headspace, we're going to approach it differently."
She said other ways people can restrict notifications is to be aware of how many times they're checking their phones and changing the sounds.
"My kids are older now, but when they were younger, I still remember playing a game. We're playing a board game, and my daughters phone pinged, and she goes, 'I've got to get it.' I said 'no, you don't, you leave it,' and she goes, 'oh, can I?'
"My phone pings and I don't even go and look at it or I don't notice that I've trained myself to not be a monkey to the ping. I'll get to that when I want."
People can re-train their responses to notifications, she said.
"So, maybe you do know there's a notification there. Change the sounds so you know which ones are important which aren't."
"You do want to have them on, but there's so much we can do to just reduce that constant interruption into our world, taking us off task, keeping us in a hyper vigilant space and then we wonder why we can't focus or relax."
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