The New New
Why We Dread New Software Updates
Is this misery normal, and for that matter, inevitable?
Every damn day, a window pops up in the upper right corner of my MacBook.
Updates available. Do you want to restart to install these updates now or try tonight?Inevitably, I’ll click “try tonight” and, since my computer is rarely plugged in, I’ll get another notification — a reminder that updates can only occur when the computer is hooked up to a power supply.
Research shows that notifications can destroy focus and even cause stress and anxiety.
Despite feeling like I just updated my computer a few months ago, I’m still plagued with update notifications that pop up when I’m busy with other tasks (or just scrolling through Twitter). It’s relentless: Just when I thought I was free from my notification prison, I’d be reminded to update before I click — again! — “remind me tomorrow.”
I’m not the only one enraged by my computer’s endless nagging. Tens of thousands of searches about disabling updates occur on Google every month, according to the platform’s keyword planning tool for advertisers. A 2017 Pew Research survey found that 14 percent of people never update their…
