tech
The Attention-Span Panic
Last year, I took a drastic step to protect my attention: I cut off my home internet service. I already refuse to get a smartphone and have long paid for an app to block internet access on my laptop when I need to be productive. Yet I was still wasting too many late-night hours scrolling X, or watching CGI reenactments of plane crashes and VHS rips of old Letterman episodes. Even resisting took an effort that I resented; the internet, I became convinced, was making me stupid, and I had no one to blame but myself.
TL;DR
- The author disconnected home internet to protect their attention from excessive online consumption.
- Societal concerns about declining attention spans are prevalent, with some viewing it as a personal failing.
- The "attention economy" involves companies profiting from harvesting user attention, potentially at the expense of the individual.
- Human attention has different types, including "sustained" attention (long focus) and "hyper-attention" (rapid switching).
- The shift towards hyper-attention has costs, using more mental energy and potentially leading to exhaustion similar to historical "Forditis."
- Individuals often give away their attention in exchange for minimal return, essentially working for free in the attention economy.
- The author compares the current situation to being "farmed" in a factory-farm system, where attention is exploited for profit.
- The feeling of anxiety and frustration around attention may stem from the subconscious awareness of being undervalued in the attention economy.