The Setup
Setting the scene
Your phone buzzes for the forty-seventh time today and you realize you can't remember the last hour without an interruption. Every notification is a leash — and you're about to cut it.
Free to play · No credit card required
Part of this story
The Notification Purge
→Every buzz is a demand for your attention from someone who does not care about your wellbeing. Take back control.
Part of the quest
Digital Boundaries
→Your phone is the first thing you touch in the morning and the last thing at night. Reclaim your attention from the most sophisticated manipulation engines ever built. You'll navigate four escalating scenarios — from the screen time report to the analog hour — practicing the decisions that matter most when the pressure is real and the stakes are personal. This isn't theory. It's practice for the moments that define how this chapter of your life unfolds.
What you'll learn from The Setup
This scenario focuses on Setting the scene — a critical skill inside the broader social media domain. You'll face a decision where the instinctive response is often the wrong one. After you make your choice, you'll see exactly what happened in the other person's head and why it mattered. The scenario is part of The Notification Purge, a full interactive story inside the Digital Boundaries quest.
Skills you'll build in Digital Boundaries
More scenarios in this quest
You turn off notifications for the first app and the silence is deafening. Your hand keeps reaching for the phone like a phantom limb — the withdrawal is real and it's only been twenty minutes.
Your boss texts asking why you haven't responded instantly. Your friend posts something you'd normally react to in seconds. The world expects your constant attention — and you're deciding it can wait.
A full day without notification anxiety and you realize how much mental space you'd been surrendering. The question isn't whether to go back — it's how much of your attention you're willing to reclaim permanently.
Ready to practice Setting the scene?
Thousands of people use Questly to build the conversation skills that matter most.
Play this scenario free →