Imagine playing Whack-a-Mole for 12+ hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days straight.  Now imagine playing Whack-a-Mole while you are getting kids ready for school, helping a child with homework, working, or, God forbid, driving.  If you have an iPhone, this is exactly what you are doing.

The average person sends and receives 94 texts, 90 emails, and dozens more push notifications from their phones every day. The intrinsic desire most feel to respond, has us playing and endless game of Whack-a-Mole. This is dangerous, because it leaves us overstimulated, exhausted, and stressed.  It is also the reason people are fearful of turning off their phones. 

I am asking Apple to upgrade the ‘Do Not Disturb’ function to include a ‘Personal Do Not Disturb” option. When this function is on, all calls and notifications will be silenced.  However, ANY caller or texter will receive an automated message that says , “This Phone is in “Personal Do Not Disturb” mode.  If your call is time-sensitive, urgent, or life-threatening, press “1” now and your call/text will be immediately pushed through.”  With this additional function, people will have the peace of mind to know that if they turn their phones off and put them down, they will not miss an important call or text.  This would allow us to be less distracted, more engaged, and give us permission to turn our phones off when we can and when we should.