Notifications Are Driving Us Crazy. (wsj.com) 111
We're on alert overload. Stray comments and offhand requests once shouted across the office now blink and buzz at us from Microsoft Teams and Slack. Our communication has grown fragmented, spread across myriad apps we have to learn, conform to, remember to check. From a report: Meanwhile, personal texts and social-media mentions have bled into the workday after all this time at home, adding another layer of distraction to our time on the clock. Why put your phone on silent if the boss isn't hovering over you? Our culture has evolved to accommodate rapid communication, says Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and it can be mentally taxing. Many of us struggle to conjure up that brilliant thought that hit right before the notification burst in. "Your memory is just overflowing with information," she says.
It doesn't make for great circumstances for getting work done, but there are ways individuals, managers and organizations can contend with the onslaught. Dr. Mark's research finds people switch screens an average of 566 times a day. Half the time we're interrupted; the other half we pull ourselves away. Breaks -- even mindless ones like scrolling Facebook -- can be positive, replenishing our cognitive resources, Dr. Mark says. But when something external diverts our focus, it takes us an average of 25 minutes and 26 seconds to get back to our original task, she has found. (Folks often switch to different projects in between.) And it stresses us out. Research using heart monitors shows that the interval between people's heart beats becomes more regular when they're interrupted, a sign they're in fight-or-flight mode. The onus is on teams and organizations to create new norms, Dr. Mark says. If individuals just up and turn off their notifications they'll likely be penalized for missing information. Instead, managers should create quiet hours where people aren't expected to respond. "It's a matter of relearning how to work," she says.
It doesn't make for great circumstances for getting work done, but there are ways individuals, managers and organizations can contend with the onslaught. Dr. Mark's research finds people switch screens an average of 566 times a day. Half the time we're interrupted; the other half we pull ourselves away. Breaks -- even mindless ones like scrolling Facebook -- can be positive, replenishing our cognitive resources, Dr. Mark says. But when something external diverts our focus, it takes us an average of 25 minutes and 26 seconds to get back to our original task, she has found. (Folks often switch to different projects in between.) And it stresses us out. Research using heart monitors shows that the interval between people's heart beats becomes more regular when they're interrupted, a sign they're in fight-or-flight mode. The onus is on teams and organizations to create new norms, Dr. Mark says. If individuals just up and turn off their notifications they'll likely be penalized for missing information. Instead, managers should create quiet hours where people aren't expected to respond. "It's a matter of relearning how to work," she says.
This is your choice (Score:5, Insightful)
And that's how I like it. So anything that dares bug me gets shot down with extreme prejudice. You choosing otherwise is on you.
Re: This is your choice (Score:4, Informative)
Re: This is your choice (Score:5, Insightful)
Eh. I wouldn't mind if I was only getting meaningful notifications. But when Youtube decides to notify me at midnight that they changed their terms of service? When I get a notification from my bank app that they've prepared my monthly summary? That (for the third time this week) I'm getting updates of the system apps, in particular Wallpaper Carousel and Package Installer? Fuck that shit.
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Re: This is your choice (Score:5, Informative)
Can you not use the notification controls? On Android you can choose what kinds of notifications each app can send, or block them entirely. You can also set "bedtime mode" via a schedule, during which any notification you didn't mark as important can be silenced.
There are lots of options to manage notifications if you dig into them.
Re: This is your choice (Score:4)
But when Youtube decides to notify me at midnight that they changed their terms of service?
Go to settings and tell your phone that you don't want any notifications between, say, 11 pm and 8 am. You can do the same for phone calls. Or you can allow calls from a whitelist but block all the others.
When I get a notification from my bank app that they've prepared my monthly summary?
You should tell your bank app that you only want critical notifications, such as fraud alerts. If they don't offer that option, then consider switching banks. I never get unwanted notifications from my bank.
Re: This is your choice (Score:5, Interesting)
Dream on ... Apple Canada has disabled your ability to disable certain alerts. Nothing quite as much fun as an Amber Alert (missing/kidnapped child) going off at 3:00 a.m.
Especially when it's for something several hundred miles away
Settings on Android still allow you to ignore big brother.
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I duckduckgo-it and turned it off. PERIOD!
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Dream on ... Apple Canada has disabled your ability to disable certain alerts.
As long as they don't prevent me from setting my phone in "Flight mode" during the night...
Re: This is your choice (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the problem with social media. They have no incentive to give you the notifications you need or want because you're not the customer, you're the product; or rather your attention is the product and you are the cow they milk it from.
"you are the product" +5 insightful since 1973 (Score:2)
GAAA! Larry Tesler invented ctrl-v, and Infinite Eyeball September [wikipedia.org] continues to make it famous.
Re: This is your choice (Score:4, Informative)
But when Youtube decides to notify me at midnight that they changed their terms of service?
Are you a content creator? If not long press the notification and uncheck Youtube permanently banning it from annoying you.
When I get a notification from my bank app that they've prepared my monthly summary?
Do you live paycheck to paycheck? If not long press the notification and uncheck your bank's app permanently banning it from annoying you.
I'm getting updates of the system apps, in particular Wallpaper Carousel and Package Installer?
Are you a programmer? If not long press the notifi... You get the idea. Both Android and iOS put *YOU* in control over what app is and isn't allowed to notify you. Android 11 even allows you to split that between an overt and silent notification, the latter not making your phone buzz or beep but still throwing the notification in your tray for addressing at your own leisure.
You are in control.
You are to blame if you don't like it.
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Some of us need more than all/nothing choices.
The person complained about Youtube specifically. He didn't complain about an aspect of Youtube. But since you seem to be too stupid to help yourself, allow me to help you:
Open Youtube, click the three dots, click settings, click Notifications. Then you have the choice of the following notifications you can individually select.
* Scheduled digest
* Subscription notifications
* Notifications per Channel
* Recommended Videos
* Activity on your channel
* Activity on your comments
* Replies to your comments
* Mentions
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I use a little app called "Volume Scheduler" that turns the sound on and off on a predefined schedule.
At 10pm the phone goes silent, period, and it doesn't make a sound until 7am. Even Amber Alerts don't make a sound.
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The vast majority are Turn Off or quietened.
Notification by vibration is My friend!
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My Android phone apparently thinks that an activity on my calendar has to generate an audible notification at midnight. That is it did until I got around to configuring the "Do Not Disturb" feature. Now family members are the only one's who can call or generate any sort of alert after a given time in the evening until my morning alarm turns DND off.
I'm less concerned about my phone being the source of interruptions than I am all the effing applications installed on my work system that find it necessary to
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Re: This is your choice (Score:2)
Focus mode came too late for many of us. Iâ(TM)ve turned all notifications off except for regular voice calls and the calendar, and now I canâ(TM)t be bothered to set up Focusâ(TM) modes.
The whole point of text messages and email was their async nature. Voice is real time. Everything else is noise.
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On iOS, you can now Focus which turns off notifications and helps you get work done.
Yes, I should definitely install another app with notifications to help me manage the overwhelming flow of notifications.
If you need an app to help you manage notifications, you're doing something wrong.
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Focus is a function in the OS. Its purpose is indeed to help you manage the flow of notifications, provided you still want them at certain times during the day.
And using Focus is not doing something wrong. It is doing something RIGHT. It is setting aside space for when you want notifications, and when you do not. Very few people have monolithic days, where it doesn't matter when notifications come.
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I'd prefer to take control of my free time by turning my phone off, but to each their own.
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And some people move into a village in the forest to take control of their free time. We all make allowances for the kind of people we want to keep in our lives, and the kind of activities we wish to take part in. For many of those, such drastic measures will deny us the ability to do what we want.
But sure, live a pauper's life. To each their own.
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But sure, live a pauper's life. To each their own.
I don't think muting my phone for a few hours now and then is going to lead to a pauper's life.
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That's the rule that I choose to live by --> my smart phone is for my convenience. Period!
Why some people fell that someone else commands their time, is beyond me.
Do some people really prefer to be Slaves to Others?
From what I see, many people like Slave-hood. Sad...IMHO
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Turning off notifications helps to stay focused. Fortunately, operating systems now allow you to have control, on phone tablets or desktops. If a program or app does not follow the rules, I wipe if off my system.
Finding what app is causing the occasional chime/beep/tweet sound can be difficult. Tailing the log of sound API accesses or equivalent is often required to pin down what is active and generating the sound.
The final defense is to just turn sound level down to zero or mute and remember to turn it back up/unmute when you actually want to hear something - which for me is very rarely. Usually just meetings.
Re: This is your choice (Score:2)
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I am sheltered from the elements, in my Cave. I can make a fire to keep warm, I do this without having to pay for utilities or a mortgage. The cave has been around for millions of years already, so I don't need to perform any maintenance.
I think Star Trek Utopian idea has distorted our expectation of technology. Everything we do in our lives have a tradeoff, do I enjoy a brief sense of pleasure by eating sweets, or do I want to stay healthy, but not get that pleasure high. Do I use a lever, where I will ne
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Sounds like bullshit. Where can you still get service for a 2G/3G cell phone in 2021?
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You mean signal? I see my phone dropping from 4g to 3g quite often. - UK
Re: This is your choice (Score:2)
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I check email. I check the 2000-era phone for texts. I check the mailbox. All at times that it behooves me. I don't get notified.
And that's how I like it. So anything that dares bug me gets shot down with extreme prejudice. You choosing otherwise is on you.
Yeah. I do have notifications for text messages, missed calls, and alarms, but that's it. On my phone I don't let it notify me of email at all. If I'm expecting one, I can check it.
On my desktop, I wrote my own email app that puts an icon in the tray. If I have no unread mail, it shows an envelope. If there is unread mail, it has an exclamation mark over it. No flashing. No blinking. No bright colors. If I want to know, I'll look at the icon, and know. Easy.
Since I don't app for websites, all my ad-blockers
bullshit notifications (Score:5, Funny)
And every bloody app and website wants to send you bullshit notifications all the time.
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Firefox honestly baffled me, offering "Yes" and "Not Now" as two default options, with "Never" only selectable from a drop-down. The first browser that offered popup blocking, doing this shit nowadays.
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Whoever even designed that feature in the first place will be first against the wall when im in charge.
Yup. (Score:2)
I don't have everything for notifications. I would get annoyed and overwhelmed if I did. Only important ones are allowed to me.
No (Score:4, Insightful)
Not if you manage it properly. Addicts can't blame their dealer for all their problems.
Re: No (Score:2)
But the addict created the dealer, the addict is the dealers attractant as much as the dealer is the addicts. Notifications would not exist if users did not want that feature. Who is to say one is less at fault as the other? Just because you empathize more with the addict? Both are in a way addicts.
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Ha ha, yeah right. If you haven't noticed many corporations code based on what they want , not what you want, if they think they can make an extra buck by having notifications then they don't give a shit what you want, they'll give you notifications.
Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)
And therein lies the rub. "Proper" management expects you to be on call, answer all their emails/texts at a moments notice, and otherwise avail yourself to what ever crisis that couldn't have possibly be prevented.
There was an article on /. a while back on continuous partial attention, and the deleterious effects it was having on work performance.
I figure we are about a decade out from when I first read that and demands from management,, if anything, has gotten worse.
I think you are confusing who the addicts are.
Re:No (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of software does not allow you to manage it properly. Take MS Teams for example, you either have to disable all kinds of notifications or allow everything. Sure you can mute some channels. But there is no option to allow calls to result into notifications, but not any chat message.
And there is this thing basically every software does bad: repeated notifications. Send 5 messages in 10 seconds, get 5 notifications. I haven't seen any software that allows me to configure it to only send me an notification once every 15 or 30 minutes.
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I haven't seen any software that allows me to configure it to only send me an notification once every 15 or 30 minutes.
This would be amazing.
I would also like it if the Microsoft Teams program taskbar wouldn't incessantly blink orange in my face every time someone sent a message while it wasn't minimized to tray. I'm now almost paranoid about minimizing it to tray whenever possible. The trouble is, sometimes I'm copying information from Teams to another program or searching for information in Teams, and the fucking thing is blinking orange in my face... I really hate Teams.
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It's a similar problem to the growing numbers of tabs we use in our web browsers - it's a cluttered work environment. Open Source FriendOS collects apps in one place and tries to group together push notifications - the goal is a streamlined work flow with less clutter, less noise. Free account here - https://friendsky.cloud/ [friendsky.cloud] - site for info here - https://friendos.com/ [friendos.com] - Source Code here - https://github.com/friendupclo... [github.com]
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Do you really believe this, or are you just being contrary?
Pretty much every app you've ever downloaded wants to send you some sort of notifications. Yes, you can go in and figure out where the specific settings are and turn off the ones you don't care about, but doing that over a couple of dozen apps is a job in itself. Even if you do it, you can't get just the notifications you want and not the "important messages" that you don't care about.
There's a incentive for "the dealer" to send you notifications -
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You can turn off notifications when ever you want (Score:2)
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I turn off all notifications (including calls and texts) on my personal phone while I'm working and only enable the ringer for actual phone calls (not anything else) on my work phone.
The problem is Microsoft Teams, a crummy chat program the company I work for uses for communication. Various people send me chat messages for various reasons all the time, and the little tray icon changes color. It even changes color due to messages in a group chat that aren't for me. The trouble is, I don't know if it's someth
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I turn slack notifications off at my work. The only way I know I have a notification is that the app has a little red dot on it. The only exception I let through is if someone @ mentions me by name, but I have notification sounds off, so I don't always notice the banner if I'm engrossed in something. I check Slack more often than email, but only when I'm between tasks or I am expecting something to come in. If it is actually urgent, I still have a phone.
Also non-event notifications (Score:4, Insightful)
Apart from message notifications, I find myself increasingly bothered by daily notifications from operating systems and applications that want to update themselves. Nothing has happened that I need to attend to and I am not even using the application at the moment - please don't call for my attention.
This goes for Mac, Windows, Linux (Mint), iOS.
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I prefer to be asked whether I want to update, just in case I'm in the middle of a project and I don't want to risk it.
This should however be configurable in all cases.
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Middle of a project, eh? Well this is me.
https://xkcd.com/1328/ [xkcd.com]
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I basically turn off all notifications.
I turned off all notifications on Ubuntu.
I have very few notifications on Android. Really just SMS because it's easier to see the one time passcodes without switching to the app.
I block all web notifications in firefox settings.
I do wish no notifications were the default or prompted on first install or something. But at least the base systems allow control. I can for example disable notifications pretty easy in firefox. I don't know if a general user knows that exists.
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I do not need my bank to tell me there is a new monthly statement, that is their job, notify me if the monthly statement was delayed.
The warning message that there is another minor point release of docker on windows just gives the wrong message. Let me approve the minor maintenance point release happen automatically once and the majors
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My current annoyance is Sublime, which I paid for, which once a day (I think it is limited to once a day), quits responding to my typing (thus losing a bit of work) because a modal pop-up appeared saying there is a new version and suggesting I update it. Once this started with a recent release I tried once doing an update to make it stop and the next day there was a new update - Sublime has a "continuous delivery" update process it seems that posts every tweak as a "new update". I have to manually download
Just turn it off (Score:1)
How hard is that?
Anyone who have used a smartphone for any length of time have learned to turn off notification from obnoxious apps.
Just do the same for the programs in Windows. Or, if you want more precision, mute all the group chats in Teams. Now only person to person message will alert you.
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The problem is that we have to do this.
Its bad design. Most notifications are complete garbage, they exist for no reason.
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Yes, and this black Friday, I removed a few more apps permission to notify me.
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I don't have this problem at all. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Limit your channels and notifications (Score:2)
Notifications are annoying, no question. The proliferation of channels, equally so. However:
- You can turn notifications off for individual apps. You can set your phone so that it does not disturb you during certain hours, except for specified people (for me: it's the wife and kids, no one else).
- You can limit the channels you use. Any office environment ought to already do this, by having at most one platform in addition to email. Add another one, max two for personal reasons. If people want to contac
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So if I use channel A, have all my contacts on that, and tell you to use that, and you use channel B, and have all your contacts on that, and tell me to use that... we should do what?
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But we live in the real world. Oversimplified solutions do not work.
Learning to switch off (Score:1)
To all saying "it's just a choice" - It is hard. Very hard.
First of all, you have to be in the position to switch off, which isn't the case for many who simply aren't yet at that stage in their careers.
Second, the overall environment must be supportive. Not in every country this is generally seen in a positive light, nor it is codified in law (very few countries did it until now).
Third, yes, it is also a choice. You have to convince yourself it's the way to go, which frankly it is. If you got any work requi
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I can't remember how long it's been since I encountered anyone in a work environment who even bothered to check the availability of the people they want to invite to a meeting/conference call. Nowadays, the boors just schedule their meetings (often to cover things that could have -- and should have -- been covered in an email) and leave the task of re-arranging their schedules all the invitees.
Massively overstated (Score:1)
It also seems to me that most messages from co-irkers are just thinly veiled attempts at trying to palm-off their work and responsibilities into other people. The only messages that warrant attention are from the boss and their boss.
It's called harassment (Score:2)
Every day I bitch about the unmitigated harassment I have deal with. Open Teams on a new machine for the first time and get a big honking window which you can't get rid of unless you "Let's Get Started". Open Outlook for the first time and you're bombarded by, "This is new!" and "Look here!".
Microsoft CRM has taken the hint and every time I open our in-house developed asset tracking system I get a big notification saying, "Search has moved!" dead center at the top of the screen.
The harassment isn't limited
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Customize them! (Score:2)
I don't have everything for notifications. I would get annoyed and overwhelmed if I did. Only important ones are allowed.
Notifications are GOOD -- in the right context (Score:3)
There's no question that in the right context notifications have been enormously beneficial. The increase in productivity has been nothing short of revolutionary. On some of the projects I'm involved in, we wouldn't last out a week if our infrastructure stopped alerting us to issues as they arise -- while we still have time to fix them before they start affecting our customers. And the ability to throw out a question to the team and get an answer in near-real time is absolutely the secret sauce in running a lean and effective operation.
One just needs to realize that outside that context, notifications are anathema, they're anti-patterns that degrade, rather than enhance, the quality of life.
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There's no question that in the right context notifications have been enormously beneficial. The increase in productivity has been nothing short of revolutionary. On some of the projects I'm involved in, we wouldn't last out a week if our infrastructure stopped alerting us to issues as they arise -- while we still have time to fix them before they start affecting our customers. And the ability to throw out a question to the team and get an answer in near-real time is absolutely the secret sauce in running a lean and effective operation.
One just needs to realize that outside that context, notifications are anathema, they're anti-patterns that degrade, rather than enhance, the quality of life.
Yeah, maybe the stress around them is the group and social expectations, not the technology.
If I could work in a way that it was ok to ignore email all day, and chat boards, and so on, and only go polling those places once a day, and not feel anxious I might miss something, then that would be... sane.
As it is, it doesn't feel that way. I'm not sure where the feeling that you should be there to interact within 30 mins comes from. It may be an implicit thing.
Can we do: "Don't expect an answer today."
Part of i
Yeah I turn off my notifications (Score:1)
If you need me you can email me.
Twenty emails per hour of "you teammates are trying to reach you on slack/teams/whatever" for every mention of every group I'm grouped into don't count.
Notifications (Score:3)
As soon as any service "notifies" me of something I'm not interested in, didn't consent to, or which I explicitly asked not to be notified about, it loses the right to notify me.
Whether that's an Android app abusing a "Service Notification" category to try to sell their new product or make me fill out a survey from a pop-up notification, or an online service I was forced to sign up to and opted out of everything sending me an email unrelated to something detrimental to my account, etc.
You lose the right to send any notification whatsoever, or your email go in the bin. If I then keep forgetting to check your service? Whoops, maybe you shouldn't have abused the privilege of my attention. When I've forgotten long enough that you're basically not being used, I'll just uninstall you or block you entirely.
This isn't negotiable, personal or business. I get emails and calls where sales guys LIE to my front-of-house staff saying I'm in conversation with them and yet I've never heard of their company or ever spoken to them... that's it... blacklisted. I'm not going to buy from a liar who's lying to me before we even start.
I've never bought anything from an unsolicited email and my only response to unsolicited notifications is to long-click on them and remove the notification permission entirely.
If you abuse my attention, you lose it entirely.
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If you abuse my attention, you lose it entirely.
100% agree, but it seems that for many people they don't even understand this is an option. I think it's worth educating users *how* to disable notifications.
Affects others more than me it seems (Score:3)
Shallow processing (Score:3)
Beeps (Score:2)
In a similar vein, is anyone else annoyed by how many times machines like ATMs will beep at them while being used? I can remember back in the text-interface days, a bell character (CTRL-G) could be sent to a terminal to draw your attention to something important on the screen. Keep in mind, this was before that advent of sound cards, so the addition of any audio into the text-only environment was significant. The only other way to draw attention to the screen was the (soon-to-be-horribly-overused) blinking
Stupid "smarrt" phones (Score:3)
My SO's phone, when it gets a notification, makes noises... and then repeats. Over and over and over. Unless she does something it *never* stops.
Why?
Why shouldn't incoming texts leave one or two noises, and stop? That's part of what drives idiots to text while driving.
YOU DON'T NEED TO ANSWER INSTANTLY.
But the phone o/s' *want* you to do that, or they'd have been designed differently.
Switch off. I do. Force asynchronous communication (Score:2)
When Dicedot was still a tech site the user base would have known all this. Reaction is a CHOICE.
Log the fuck out if you don't want to be bothered. It really is that easy. Learn to reject demands. Harden up from the start. I did. It works.
Force important comms over channels YOU prefer as a condition of interaction with you. I do. Want to fucking connect with me? Email or message and I shall respond when I damn well please. My circle is fine with that because all of us (mostly ex-military) are comfy with d
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That's what I do. I recently got a tone of voice from someone at work that made it clear that he was incredulous that someone would ever do that. Hell, the damned thing makes so many beep, boops,and chimes during the work day I can't imagine anyone wanting to hear that after hours. (I'm not in a position where I'm on-call and would need to be on 24hr/day, fortunately). I set the boundary of turning the l
Here's a Solution (Score:1)
Here is a solution -- turn that shit off.
Scrolling is changing brains (Score:2)
Notifications are just hamster wheels. Scrolling goes deeper. When you dream-scroll, that’s the human mind scrolling.
Tech isn’t making us crazy, humans are changed because of it.
Even More Annoying (Score:1)
Is the propensity to put camera's and microphone's in every fucking thing these days. Absolutely everythng needs to be disassembled as soon as it is acquired in order to have the clandestine camera's and microphone's disabled with pliers and nails.
Could Microsoft "win" with a fix? (Score:1)
I've thought Google will never manage notifications (attention use) while their income is dependent on it (selling, games, advertising, etc). What if Microsoft or Apple became the better, premium option for managing program use of our attention?
I might switch to Apple or use more Microsoft products if so...
POTS (Score:2)
Yep. (Score:1)
No Facebook. No Messenger. No YouTube. Nothing.
And at work, not even my inbox or GitHub.
If it's that time-critical, and it rarely is, they can call me.
Haven't gotten a single complaint for "not responding fast enough".
They ain't drivin' me crazy (Score:2)
They ain't drivin' me crazy, because I barely have any of that bullshit turned on.
Plus I don't have any of the social media shit that's constantly clamoring for your attention, so that's 95% of these sources of annoyance gone.
I get notifications when I get texts (not very often) and for voicemails (even less often).
Face it, you're doing this to yourselves. No one is forcing you to have notifications on. No one is forcing you to drag out your shiny and check to see what just happened.
While I'm on the subject
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I think the gist of the article (assumption on my part as I'm not nor will likely ever be a WSJ subscriber) is that these annoying notifications are a big problem on the job. I find that Teams and other packages of that ilk and the people who use them have no respect for your productivity and don't understand the concept of "flow" or what their unsolicited notification just did to it.
Many in a work environment don't have the luxury of completely disabling the software that receives notifications during th
Sounds like a problem... (Score:2)
For those that don't know how to operate their own tools. This shouldn't surprise anyone on this site since most people think computers run on magic and fairy dust. Everything should be an appliance and certainly the vendor must knows best.
This summary (who even cares if they had an article link for this topic) should be put on BBC or some non-technical site where the other 99% of computer-appliance users belong.
Microsoft Teams - a major PITA (Score:3)
TL;DR: In the workplace, you cannot necessarily opt out. And Microsoft Teams - when used improperly (which is what will typically happen because people) - is major PITA.
I see a lot of comments regarding how you should switch off notifications, and if you don't then it's your choice (which is true though telling the addict to "why don't you just stop" does not necessarily solve anything), however ...
... in the workplace, you may not have the option to just opt out. And yes, Microsoft Teams, the plague that has infested my workplace, I am looking at you.
Because at least where I work, there is stuff happening on Teams you need to respond to during the day as it occurs, because some modern future-oriented decision makers with no understanding of communication theory or human psychology, decided that email is the new chisel writing, and Teams is the way to go for mostly everything, because it is so convenient and blah blah...
So _everything_ gets moved to Teams, which is an unholy mixture of some things which are important or relevant, and a ton of stuff that is marginally relevant - but every leap year there is something there you need to see, so you can't just opt out. Notification management is a PITA, and you can't switch off channels in which you might occasionally need to see something important. It is also difficult to turn off notification on replies because some times you need to see that, but 95% of the time you have people responding with stuff that is completely unimportant or only relevant to a small group of people, but still _every_ employee gets exposed to it, every time.
Add to his how Microsoft Teams has become the new (lack of an) information architecture, for which anything that needs to be shared is just "put on Teams", and after a week nobody remembers whether it was actually put there, or where to find it. Also, stuff you need to act on gets sent as messages, but it is marked as read the moment you see it, and if you don't act on it immediately, and something steals your attention for a couple minutes, you might forget about the entire thing - as opposed to email where stuff will remain in your inbox until you decide yourself to move or delete it. Additionally, when you click on an unread article in your feed, and you are brought to that channel - then if there is more than one comment you have not read, they all get marked as read automatically - even though you maybe only looked at the bottom one (because there was no visual cue to tell you there were more than one unread thing, and you try to be fast).
I absolutely truly hate some of the effects the roll-out of Microsoft Teams has had in my workplace. It is a system in which the "modern" we-just-love-facebook-and-twitter-and-getting-overloaded-with-information-always completely unstructured people, get to rule and thrive. Meanwhile, with these new "productivity tools", it has gotten a lot harder to get **** done.
This has already turned into a rant, so I'll just stop here :-)