Introduction
Attention Sovereignty is our capacity to consciously self-determine the target of our attention. It is the idea that each one of us has the right and the ability to control where and how we direct our attention.
I believe it to be self-evident that this right is an instrument of our free will, consciousness and individuality, and it is in our self-interest to preserve it.
You certainly would not like to lose the right to control your legs to any external entity, not even temporarily, yet we increasingly give up the most important tools we have to exert our free will, seek our goals, to be there for our loved ones and to participate in a healthy democratic process, which are our focus and attention.
Without Attention Sovereignty, a human being is not free.
Targets of Attention
Targets of Attention (ToA) are specific objects or stimuli (real or virtual) that inidividuals focus on at a given time.
Entities that own Targets of Attention (ToA) are heavily incentivized to monetize them, especially in mediums related to entretainment like social media and television.
Monetizing what can be monetized is a most common action to take in our capitalism-based western world. It’s hard to say there’s something morally wrong with it. However, these entities are not usually in the context of being employed, or being paid for a service, but rather they’re monetizing the mere fact that they own targets of attention. This creates what is refered to as an Attention Economy, in which corporations attempt to capture the attention of the populace so that they can sell this attention to advertisers.
Because these corporations exist to maximise profit, they use all possible measures to capture our attention, be it by using dark patterns of manipulation, dopamine inducing techniques, slot-machine dynamics, etc…
Lets take traditional newspapers as an example: it would be possible for an outlet to just sell a newspaper with articles in it, and consumers would gladly pay to read them if the content was valuable. But what ends up happening is that newspaper owners not only sell their articles, but also attention.
Contemporary social media and other tech apps are built to lull us into a trance with infinite scrolls, recomendation systems and flashy triggering content to reel us in, just so we can watch more ads and make the businesses more money. Serving the users is secondary. Television channels startle us with loud noises, enrages us and gives us brain fog and information overload, just so it can capture our attention to make the business more money. Informing and empowering the populace is secondary. City streets, train stations and other public spaces are being taken over by private interests, bombarding us with ads and billboards everywhere we look.
Tech apps are especially guilty of participating heavily in the attention economy, since the medium itself (phones, computers…) has a great capacity to gather our attention.
Awareness
In face of these realities, what is an individual to do?
I believe awareness is the first step to recover our attention sovereignty. By being conscious of the tech we use and how it could be attempting to change our behaviour, we can change our response and behaviours.
The education system itself should make our children aware of these dynamics.
Personal Experience
Personally, I’ve taken some actions to protect my attention sovereignty:
Stopped Using Reddit
I used to be an avid Reddit user, and having an account provides you with an infinite algorithmic feed tailored to you, which can be addictive, trance inducing, cause information overload, bias you towards rage-baiting content and create a slot-machine dynamic. Most of these patterns prevail even when using reddit without an account, so I’ve taken steps to limit my access to Reddit.
If there is a subreddit I find interesting, I subscribe to it using RSS.
Stopped Using Twitter/X
Twitter/X is a for-profit app with the purpose of selling ads, and the most valuable content seems to be short, shallow and emotionally triggering, which benefits the attention extraction business model. It seems to me that there can be other ways to connect with people that do not entail sacrificing so much of your attention sovereigny and sanity.
Deleted Instagram
Instagram has become an app built to distract and amuse you intensely to sell more ads with their Reels and Stories features, and for businesses to sell things to you through their official pages or using influencers.
Instead of optimizing for connection with friends, it optimizes attention extraction for profit.
Stopped Using Youtube
I use RSS to subscribe to youtube channels I enjoy watching. This helps me avoid using the platform directly, which has lots of distracting and attention extracting features.
Turned off all notifications
I deactivated every notification on my phone, except for more sensitive things like payments, phone calls, etc. Most notifications are the apps trying to use you, instead of being you who uses the app.
Minimal Android Launcher
Made my phone boring: changed to a minimalist launcher without icons and distracting things like app badges.