Many times my friends will question me like this: “Hey! Have you looked at the Snap I sent you yet?” Or “Why haven’t you responded on Facebook?” Or sometimes “Did you see what _______ posted underneath your Instagram photo?”

I get these types of inquiries so much that I basically respond with my standard text of “Sorry, let me go look real fast.” I then open up whatever social media service I have unfinished business on, look/respond/delete whatever issue my friend alerted me to, and then follow up with them via another text.

Many of you might be surprised to know this about me, but I don’t subscribe to Facebook, Instagram, or Snap Chat iPhone notifications on my personal accounts. For my readers out there without iPhones that means I don’t get alerted, buzzed, or notified when someone interacts with me (i.e. likes/tags/messages/etc.) on these services. Additionally, on the menu pages of my iPhone I don’t have little numbers at the corners of the icons telling me how many notifications I have.

Now I know this might come as a shock to some of you considering I work very closely with and I have a strong passion for social media but let me just quickly explain and I am sure you will understand.

Handling social media for Grizzly Athletics is a 24/7 job all in itself. Besides posting intriguing content and giving our fans access they can’t get anywhere else, I also have to serve as the best customer service rep possible. In order to do that, I make sure to answer the numerous inquiries from fans we receive on a daily basis through all of our social media outlets. Because this is the job I get paid to do, Griz fans will get a quicker response from me than my Facebook friends will. To minimize a complete overload, I turn off my personal notifications while keeping my work related notifications on.

Secondly, I kind of like the element of surprise when I open up my Facebook, Instagram, or Snap Chat account. Although I do without external notifications, I do get a bit of a thrill when I get the notifications inside the service itself. Call me weird, but I like guessing how many (if any) notifications I will have. It is fun opening up Facebook and seeing that you have a couple friend requests, a few messages, and six notifications. Conversely, it is disappointing when I log in after a half day and have nothing. But I much prefer getting my interactions all at once after a little time has passed rather than getting notified about each single one in real time via text alerts and notifications on my iPhone menu.

Just a couple points. During the work day
I am obviously logged on Facebook the whole time from my desktop office computer so I do receive my personal stuff up to the second during those hours. I don’t want to make it seem like I am completely disconnected from my personal Facebook page when in reality I am on it very consistently during the day. Also, I do receive all Twitter notifications (replies, mentions, direct messages, and even tweets of others) directly to my phone. Twitter is a service that I feel is both manageable and important for me to keep tabs on 24/7 from a personal level so I am constantly engaged with it.

So if you see that I haven’t opened your Snap or you don’t know why I haven’t responded to your Instagram post within the first couple minutes, don’t take it personally. I will get to it eventually, with 99% of the time it being sooner rather than later. Sometimes even a person obsessed with social media has to take small measures to keep himself sane. Don’t Blink.