This is exactly what happens to us when we enable push notifications – the alerts that show up on our home and lock screens countless times per day. Notifications use our brains’ natural ability to associate cues with rewards (and our anxiety over uncertainty) to get us to compulsively check our phones. Every time you hear or see a notification, you know that there’s something new and unpredictable waiting for you – two qualities that we are hardwired to crave.
