Below are some people whose perspectives have opened my mind and inspired me to reflect more deeply on attention and how to protect/cultivate it in this digital age.
William James was a philosopher whose thought has shaped the entire field of psychology. His seminal work, The Principles of Psychology, contains an entire chapter on “Attention” which, although published in 1890, still holds up as one of the most profound meditations on the topic to date.
Resources:
- The Principles of Psychology, Chapter XI: Attention
- William James on Attention, Multitasking, and the Habit of Mind That Sets Geniuses Apart, by Maria Popova
Tristan Harris is a former Google Design Ethicist who co-founded the Center for Humane Technology with former technology insiders, whose mission is to reverse the harms created by technology platforms, and to re-align technology with humanity.
Resources:
- Humane: A New Agenda for Tech (Tristan Harris)
- How Humans Get Hacked: Yuval Noah Harari and Tristan Harris
- Your Undivided Attention Podcast
Cal Newport is a computer scientist at Georgetown University who has written and spoken widely on the intersection of technology and society.
Resources:
- Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World)
- TED Talk: Why you should quit social media
Sam Harris is a writer, philosopher, neuroscientist, and host of the Making Sense Podcast.
Resources:
- Waking Up meditation course
- Making Sense Episode #71: “What is technology doing to us? A Conversation with Tristan Harris
Zeynep Tufekci is professor at the University of North Carolina who focuses her research, writing, and speaking on the intersection between technology and society.
Resources:
Renée DiResta is a 2019 Mozilla Fellow in Media, Misinformation, and Trust. She investigates the spread of malign narratives across social networks, and writes/speaks about the role that tech platforms and curatorial algorithms play in the proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Resources:
- “The Information War — A Conversation with Renée DiResta” (Making Sense Podcast)
Matthew B. Crawford a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.
Resources:
- Attention as a cultural problem & the possibility of education
- “The Cost of Paying Attention,” The New York Times (Sunday Review), March 7, 2015
- The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
Jenny Odell is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer who is “compelled by the ways in which attention (or lack thereof) leads to consequential shifts in perception at the level of the everyday.”
Resources:
- How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
- The Ezra Klein Show: Jenny Odell and the Art of Attention