This is a very insightful post. It makes me wonder about the underlying psychological driver of this behavior.
I would hypothesize that this compulsion is less about a rational fear of an actual crisis and more a conditioned response driven by FoMO. So the urgency sense is more similar to an addicitive-like brain response.
We have been trained by social media and marketing to associate notifications with potentially missing a social update, a relevant piece of information, or a commercial opportunity. The "fear" is not of a disaster, but of social or informational exclusion.
The "what if it's an emergency?" argument then becomes a powerful rationalization. It allows us to justify an impulsive, FoMO-driven behavior (checking the phone) by framing it as a responsible, necessary action.
This is a very insightful post. It makes me wonder about the underlying psychological driver of this behavior.
I would hypothesize that this compulsion is less about a rational fear of an actual crisis and more a conditioned response driven by FoMO. So the urgency sense is more similar to an addicitive-like brain response.
We have been trained by social media and marketing to associate notifications with potentially missing a social update, a relevant piece of information, or a commercial opportunity. The "fear" is not of a disaster, but of social or informational exclusion.
The "what if it's an emergency?" argument then becomes a powerful rationalization. It allows us to justify an impulsive, FoMO-driven behavior (checking the phone) by framing it as a responsible, necessary action.