Are you paying attention when you scroll online? In episode 176 of Overthink, Ellie and David draw your attention to attention. They explain why attention is so hard to define and debate the extent to which it should be equated with consciousness. Is attention the same thing as consciousness? Or are there important differences between these concepts? They consider different ways that attention has been classified, from “overt vs. covert” to “effortful vs. effortless” to “voluntary vs. involuntary.” Ellie and David then discuss the commodification of attention and how it has been intensified by the digital era, or what Chris Hayes calls “the age of attention.” How has social media changed the way we attend to the world, to ourselves, and to others? Is our attention still our own? Or has it become alienated? In the Substack Bonus Segment, Ellie and David talk about Simone Weil’s and Iris Murdoch’s ethical approaches to attention.

Works Discussed:

Jelle Bruineberg, “Rethinking the cognitive foundations of the attention economy”

Chris Hayes, The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource

William James, The Principles of Psychology

Carlos Montemayor and Harry Haroutioun Haladjian, Consciousness, Attention, and Conscious Attention

The Friends of Attention, Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement

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