Notifications About Nothing

By ALICE O’BRIEN

Alice O’Brien Counselling, Newmarket

When the postman comes to my door if I’m not at home, I get a notification on my phone. My colleague gets regular notifications when their teenager buys a chocolate bar on his school lunch break. Your fridge can send you a notification if the milk supply runs low. All these pings on our phone alert us to things that are not vital to the running of our daily lives. Are we being constantly contacted by things that don’t add to our connection? Is our phone is alerting us to useless information?

Can you remember the last time you had a meaningful conversation with someone who phoned to see how you are?

Connecting to others is a vital part of live, daily chats can really enhance our mental health. In an attempt to make our lives faster and more convenient, we are losing that connection. The self-service check-out in the supermarket won’t ask you how you are, or how the kids are or even if you got over the recent flu you had. We might get out of the shop faster by scanning our own groceries, but we’ve made no eye contact with anyone, or had no meaningful interaction.

Social isolation can be a big issue for rural areas. Being miles away from your nearest neighbour means the chances of informal interactions are less likely. So, we need to ensure we keep the

everyday encounters going. Drones delivering your package might be a futuristic concept but it isn’t impossible and a drone won’t wave at you like the DPD man will.

So, how do we keep the connection alive? Well, we can support on-going efforts in the community, groups that can only run if you make an effort to go. Active retirement groups, tidy town’s projects or mother and toddler groups. When we attend these groups, we strengthen our connection to our community in general and benefit our own mental health at the same time.

So, if you’re thinking of joining that local group this is your sign to go do it.