The power of attention in a world of distraction

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2022

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sean Illing talks with Michael Sacasas, an author and teacher exploring the relationship between technology and society in his newsletter, The Convivial Society. This conversation is all about attention: what it exactly is, what its purpose is, and how it is under threat by the technology of modern society and its ubiquitous distractions. Michael calls upon venerated philosophers (like Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch) as well as contemporary writers (like Nicholas Carr and Jenny Odell) to make the case that figuring out how to command our attention is a matter of great moral significance, and is a crucial component of living a good life. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area Guest: L. Michael Sacasas (@LMSacasas), author of the newsletter The Convivial Society on Substack; associate director, Christian Study Center of Gainesville References: The Frailest Thing: Ten Years of Thinking About the Meaning of Technology by L.M. Sacasas (Gumroad; 2019) "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut (1961) "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr (The Atlantic; July/August 2008) Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan (1964) Blaise Pascal on Diversion, from the Pensées (1670) "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God" by Simone Weil (1942) "The idea of perfection" by Iris Murdoch (1964) "Against Dryness" by Iris Murdoch (1961) Simone Weil, letter to Joë Bousquet, Apr. 13, 1942: "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." "On Two Ways of Relating to the World" by L.M. Sacasas (The Convivial Society, Nov. 22) How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell (Melville House; 2019) Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Support The Gray Area by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by: Producer: Erikk Geannikis Editor: Amy Drozdowska Engineer: Patrick Boyd Senior Producer: Katelyn Bogucki Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks to WhatsApp for sponsoring this episode.
0:02.8	Have you ever written an embarrassing text
0:04.8	and accidentally sent it to the wrong person?
0:07.6	It's mortifying.
0:09.1	But if your messaging platform isn't secure,
0:11.1	there could be any number of wrong people.
0:13.4	Third parties, intercepting your private messages.
0:16.6	With WhatsApp, you don't need to be concerned
0:18.2	about anyone intercepting your personal messages.
0:20.6	Because WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption
0:22.4	automatically encodes them, so they can only be decoded
0:25.2	and read by your intended recipients.
0:27.4	Switch to the app that offers simple, reliable,
0:29.6	private messaging with end-to-end encryption built-in
0:32.4	because your personal messages should be private.
0:35.0	WhatsApp always message privately.
0:39.2	I was recently reminded of a Kurt Vonnegut short story
0:42.4	from 1961.
0:45.0	It's called Harrison Bergeron.
0:48.0	It's a dystopian sci-fi tale set in a future America
0:52.0	where total equality is imposed by the state.
0:57.2	The totalitarian themes don't hold up all that well.
	...

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