Attention-economy distractions accumulate to erode autonomy and selfhood

Evidence

We experience the externalities of the attention economy in little drips, so we tend to describe them with words of mild bemusement like “annoying” or “distracting.” But this is a grave misreading of their nature. In the short term, distractions can keep us from doing the things we want to do. In the longer term, however, they can accumulate and keep us from living the lives we want to live, or, even worse, undermine our capacities for reflection and self-regulation, making it harder, in the words of Harry Frankfurt, to “want what we want to want.” Thus there are deep ethical implications lurking here for freedom, wellbeing, and even the integrity of the self. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 403

In a post about ad blockers on the University of Oxford’s “Practical Ethics” blog, the technology ethicist James Williams (of Time Well Spent) lays out the stakes: … We experience the externalities of the attention economy in little drips, so we tend to describe them with words of mild bemusement like “annoying” or “distracting.” But this is a grave misreading of their nature. In the short term, distractions can keep us from doing the things we want to do. In the longer term, however, they can accumulate and keep us from living the lives we want to live, or, even worse, undermine our capacities for reflection and self-regulation, making it harder, in the words of Harry Frankfurt, to “want what we want to want.” Thus there are deep ethical implications lurking here for freedom, wellbeing, and even the integrity of the self. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 402

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s prior material on information overload and the structural undermining of independent thought. — connects to: Benjamin valued distraction and habit in perception where Adorno required concentration. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 632; Rational administration of consumption masks the loss of individual control over life decisions — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 186; Massive socialization at home arrests consciousness and blocks autonomy’s hidden roots — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 851 (+10 more)
• DEFINE: The Frankfurt ‘want what we want to want’ formulation defines what’s at stake — the integrity of the self — in the attention economy.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 403; Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 402