I've begun ignoring the buzzes in my pocket, and it's been a massive relief.
As someone who spends most of my time at a computer, I feel especially silly holding up a smartphone screen in front of that computer.
Eventually, I click over to the Messages for web tab in my browser and see what I've been missing: group texts with friends to get back to, messages from my partner, an alert from Verizon that my autopay went through successfully.
Important stuff, no doubt, but stuff that doesn't require an immediate, "Stop everything!" response. Instead, I ignore the buzzes, find a natural end point to whatever I'm doing, then catch up on messages I've been missing.
It's a subtle change with massive implications — I've been knee-jerk responding to text message pocket vibrations for over 10 years now.
But there's something about having all my text messages in a browser window, waiting for me, that changed how I look at them: They're just instant message windows now, nothing more than the AOL Instant Messengers and Facebook Messengers of the world.
It's obvious, I realize. They're all just messaging software in the broadest sense. But text messages have maintained the top spot in my personal hierarchy of prioritization. Messages for web is helping me put the space between myself and text messages that I didn't even realize I needed.