Withholding attention is framed as one tactic, not the whole prescription
Evidence
By the same token, there are many different places where manifest dismantling can begin to work. Wherever we are, and whatever privileges we may or may not enjoy, there is probably some thread we can afford to be pulling on. Sometimes boycotting the attention economy by withholding attention is the only action we can afford to take. Other times, we can actively look for ways to impact things like the addictive design of technology, but also environmental politics, labor rights, women’s rights, indigenous rights, anti-racism initiatives, measures for parks and open spaces, and habitat restoration—understanding that pain comes not from one part of the body but from systemic imbalance. As in any ecology, the fruits of our efforts within any of these fields may well reach beyond to the others. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 666
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
Related
- Withdrawing attention is presented as one possible tactic among many (similarity 0.95)
- Attention problems exceed individual logging off into structural public issues (similarity 0.81)
- Attention withdrawal must be ongoing training, not a one-time act (similarity 0.81)
- Attention is the foundational faculty for all meaningful refusal. (similarity 0.81)
- Attention may be the last resource people can withdraw (similarity 0.81)
- Escaping the attention economy differs from escaping the world entirely (similarity 0.80)
- Attention actively constitutes reality, not merely reacts to it (similarity 0.80)
- Doing nothing means resisting the attention economy, not mere idleness. (similarity 0.79)
- Individual remedies reinforce the attention-extraction regime rather than escaping it (similarity 0.79)
- Doing nothing functions as political resistance to the attention economy. (similarity 0.78)
- Attention can be deliberately wielded, not just reclaimed (similarity 0.78)