Attensity!: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement

A rallying cry to fight the commodification of human attention, with the tools we need to reclaim our humanity, by a group of writers, artists, and activists in the vanguard of the movement

“A stirring battle cry on behalf of our shared humanity against the forces that seek to diminish and degrade it. Downright invigorating. Just what the moment calls for.”—Chris Hayes, author of The Sirens’ Call

We all feel it: something is seriously wrong. Our attention—that essential ability to give our minds and senses to the world—is being trapped, gutted, and sold out from under us by an industry of immense technological and financial power. The heedless exploitation of this vital capacity by a handful of tech companies is harming us all, reducing our very selfhood to that which can be quantified, bought, and sold—and shaking the foundations of our democracy.

To push back against this “human fracking,” we need more than individual willpower or isolated efforts. We need a movement of collective resistance. Such a movement is beginning to bloom, and in this radical, first-of-its-kind guide, The Friends of Attention show us how to join the fight. We meet welders, nurses, poets, and surfers, all of whom are engaged in attentional practices. We learn to seek out sanctuaries—theaters and museums, houses of worship, dance parties—where together we can take refuge from the frackers. Attention Activism takes our apocalyptic present, turns it on its head, and reveals new vistas of human flourishing.

Drawing on a rich legacy of critical intellectuals and the creative wisdom of diverse traditions, Attensity! calls on us to come together to defeat the greedy dehumanizing forces of brute instrumentalization—and re-enchant the world.

About the Author :
The Friends of Attention is a collective of activists, artists, and thinkers. Three editors and long-standing "Friends" helped Attensity! take shape: D. Graham Burnett is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of history of science at Princeton University. Alyssa Loh, a filmmaker, co-directed the short film “Twelve Theses on Attention.” Peter Schmidt is the Program Director of the Strother School of Radical Attention.

Review :
“Attensity! argues that we’ve been thinking about this crisis all wrong. The problem isn’t that you, personally, are addicted to your phone or that you can’t stay on task. It goes deeper than that.”—The Washington Post

“This book makes an impassioned case for ‘attention activism,’ for cultivating new ways of attending to each other and the world. Both our public and our innermost lives depend upon it. I think every artist is a partisan of the ‘Attention Liberation Movement.’”—Ben Lerner, Time “25 Books that Capture This American Moment”

“One of [Attensity’s] immediate attractions is that it relieves the hand-wringing instinct to reproach ourselves for our constant distraction. . . . Rather than bemoan our lack of willpower in limiting our immersion in digital spaces, they mount a more holistic and radical opposition to the forces that hold us hostage there.”—The Observer

“A stirring battle cry on behalf of our shared humanity against the forces that seek to diminish and degrade it. Downright invigorating. Just what the moment calls for.”—Chris Hayes, author of The Sirens’ Call

“Attensity! is about how to reclaim one of our most powerful and valuable qualities—our attention—through a path back to the human things that matter: community, care, imagination, and art.”—Nathan Heller, staff writer, The New Yorker

“With a lively, even joyful blend of philosophical seriousness and practical imagination, it invites us to see attention not as a private asset to be hoarded but as a shared capacity to be cultivated and protected.”—Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of Cosmopolitanism

“Attensity! is a thrilling declaration of independence from tech’s tyranny over our human spirits. We feel the human and humane surge to renewed life through its call to each of us to reclaim ownership of our own attention.”—Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality

“It is not always that you come across a book that changes how you see the world. Attensity! is an extraordinary book—every chapter has revelations that will make you stop and reconsider how you are living your life and reclaim the life that we have been given.”—Tim Wu, author of The Age of Extraction and The Attention Merchants

“This is an ambitious text that will demand much of all of us readers beyond the page. It is asking vital questions about the potential of rewiring our lives in a time of growing crisis, where avalanches of information and access threaten the present and future of care, of close attention.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year

“Pay attention: If you are human, you must read this book. According to AI people, it now means clearing out context to make less work for pattern-finding algorithms. Don’t let algorithms clear YOU out.”—Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget

“An essential call to arms to fight back against the fracking of our minds—and an indispensable guide to reclaiming the human spirit.”—Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology

“Luminous.”—James Williams, author of Stand Out of Our Light