So turn off notifications, disable the giphy plugin, and use it as a repository of questions to answer when you finally get out of the zone?

I guess I didn't bother to enable notifications or install the "app", so I treat slack like I do email: something to do when I'm ready for a mental break from what I'm currently doing.

> so there’s a heavy social expectation for me to keep those conversational plates spinning on an ongoing basis

I think you're actually creating this problem. I might be a special snowflake but everyone I've worked with via slack realizes it is a lot like SMS messages: Probably delivered, and you might get a reply.

It seems like all of your complaints are self-created by an obsessive need to "feel" connected without the personal responsibility to turn off the connections when you need you time. I'm sure I have a lot of slack messages to "read" after this weekend but the important ones will come back again anyway.

i don't understand what this user expected. Killing email, really. Its a messaging service. These have been around since the beginning of the internet.