What Just Happened to Our Attention?

What Just Happened to Our Attention? 

How is our attention coping while we are tracked and fracked by digital tools?

The Temporary Thought Collective has been active since 2012. We discuss, have a soup and go for a walk in the landscape. 

Our digital tools are not only keeping track of what we do, they are deliberately getting hold of our attention. This has consequences for our ability to concentrate, for our creativity, and for our social lives. Let’s get some of the facts in focus around the ‘fracking’ of attention and discuss what the strategies could be get back to a more self-determined understanding of how we spend our time.  

Two editions of the Ezra Klein Show focus on research which could help us reclaim our attention: The historian of science D. Graham Burnett on what’s at stake in the rise of an extractive attention economy. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-d-graham-burnett.html. Scholar of attention Gloria Mark has done valuable research on how much the general attentionspan has been reduced over a very short period. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-gloria-mark.html?showTranscript=1