Our Attention is being fracked
The attention economy isn't just burning out neurotypicals — it has been strip-mining ADHD minds for years.
Hey fellow data kits, (did you know that ferret children are called "kits"?)
Our Attention is being fracked
Recently, I have followed with great interest Ezra Kleins coverage on the attention economy. Three episodes that I particularly recommend are:
(These are NY Times links but you can find them on any podcast platform)
I have lived most of my adult life trying to "fix"myself. Getting an ADHD diagnosis was very liberating because it provided me with a constraint box that focused me on instead creating workarounds around certain aspects of myself rather than trying to fix thing that were unalterable core matters. Over the years, I've learned to more and more cleanly identify where the line is drawn.
I am getting more and more comfortable with wielding my mind, and at asking for the right support from people around me and playing at my assymetrical strengths and weaknesses.
People around me that know the diagnosis and have seen my growth, and lately I've noticed more and more people that I did not really consider close to me on the spectrum considering getting tested, as they felt their attention was crumbling and recognizing themselves in the traditional symptoms cited regarding ADHD. This was quite bizarre to hear as some of these people were people that actually made me realize I was different, as they managed to do the things I struggled at with comparatively little effort. To find that their minds, years later, was starting to crack in the same ways as my own was suspicious to say the least.
Even though I was always different, the clinical part of my condition grew over time. One thing that was weird is that my ability to read a book from start to finish was broken, even though I was able to devour series of books when I was a child.
I have more and more shifted my mindset from my previous attitude of "I have limitations that needs that I need support and workarounds and hacks to function" to "My neurology is wired in a way that makes me vulnerable to hijack and needs systems of protection".
The world is currently getting very much out of hand from an attention eating standpoint, and the analogy of "attention fracking" resonates so deeply with me. It seems like there is an ephemeral beast, one that we cannot see, that has an insatiable hunger for our attention, that is larger than the aggregate attention of all human beings. People with the personality traits commonly associated with ADHD has been feeling this for many years, but as this beast has eaten all it can from us, it is now starting to try to get at neurotypicals, and it doesn't seem to matter how resilient you are, it will eventually figure out ways to get you.
Uninstalling and removing apps that gives it inroads helps greatly, but I've noticed that even premium subscriptions are now starting to add advertising, so we are seeing hints of a future where even if you are willing to pay to remove advertising that option is limited.
I encourage you to, if you have blamed yourself for lack of attention, feeling tired, undecisive or similar this week - instead play around with the idea that maybe the problem wasn't your time management or management of yourself. What if it wasn't that you protected yourself well?
But I am suspecting that even going on defense is not going to be enough. This might be an attention war, and offense might be the only realistic defense.
I have this idea on my backlog to create a prototype of an ad blocker for AR headsets, that replaces ground ads in the subway and your way to work with artwork collection, or pictures of your friends and family from years back - reclaiming that attention space as yours to control, a shield.
As I am removing more and more messengers and inboxes , the one that shines greatly is email. I am so happy that a product like Superhuman can exist, and is greatly telling of a trend in the world. With Vim-like navigation and impeccable UI design, it truly feels like a piece of software allied with ME, not the interests of someone else.
It was kind of an inadvertent decision to not have a noreply@ for funfun.email - any reply you make here goes directly to my inbox, and it has been a true delight for me this week to write with you all, it felt very raw and what the internet is really all about.
I don't have time to reply to all of you, especially not long term, but I have actually found myself writing a lot of replies this week - it has felt like true correspondance with penpals, so please keep it coming!