Big Tech Hijacked Our Attention. Chris Hayes Wants To Win It Back.

Machines Like Us

Do I have your attention right now? I’m guessing probably not. Or, at least, not all of it. In all likelihood, you’re listening to this on your morning commute, or while you wash the dishes or check your e-mail.

We are living in a world of perpetual distraction. There are more things to read, watch and listen to than ever before – but our brains, it turns out, can only absorb so much. Politicians like Donald Trump have figured out how to exploit this dynamic. If you’re constantly saying outrageous things, it becomes almost impossible to focus on the things that really matter. Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon called this strategy “flooding the zone.”

As the host of the MSNBC show All In, Chris Hayes has had a front-row seat to the war for our attention – and, now, he’s decided to sound the alarm with a new book called The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource.

Hayes joined me to explain how our attention became so scarce, and what happens to us when we lose the ability to focus on the things that matter most.

Mentioned:

"Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest," by Zeynep Tufekci

Further Reading:

"Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction," by Vikram R. Bhargava and Manuel Velasquez.

"The Attention Economy Labour, Time and Power in Cognitive Capitalism," by Claudio Celis Bueno

“The business of news in the attention economy: Audience labor and MediaNews Group’s efforts to capitalize on news consumption,” Brice Nixon