From Delight to Dread: How Phones Became Modern Torture

"With phones in our pockets we are submitting to the worst form of torture every waking moment. Ironically, fifty years ago when a telephone rang in a home, all denizens would joyously scurry towards the plastic encased device as if it were Santa Claus descending the chimney with a satchel full of gifts. Prior to the invention of caller-ID, while the telephone was ringing... you did not know who was calling. You had to pick up the phone in order to find out. Imagine."

"That unique and ubiquitous "ding-aling-aling" chimed with human possibility, of delightful connection and ecstatic serendipity. It could be bringing good news from afar, a friend proposing a spontaneous adventure, or the promise of a lover calling to schedule a secret rendezvous. The sound itself had a Pavlovian charge that caused the recipient to salivate with the hope of having their soul nourished."

"Of late, something has profoundly shifted and the same sound that once lifted our hearts now tightens our sphincters. Modern notifications with their accompanying vibrations evoke panic and dread rather than wonderment. Where once it meant "opportunity," now it signals " attention demand." In the attention economy, every notification is a distraction from whatever fire we are already attempting to extinguish. The semiotics of sound have inverted completely from connection to constriction."

Unpredictable intermittent shocks represent the worst form of torture for laboratory rats, and smartphone notifications replicate that pattern for humans. The portability of phones exposes people to constant, unpredictable attention demands throughout the day. Half a century ago, telephone rings signaled joyful possibility and serendipitous connection; modern notifications and vibrations now trigger panic, dread, and constriction. In the attention economy, every alert distracts from ongoing tasks and reduces signal-to-noise ratio. Mindfulness in the current era requires installing filters to improve what reaches the brain. Frequent labeled calls like 'Scam Likely' and 'Unknown Caller' compound anxiety and erode wonder.

Read at Psychology Today