In the digital age, our attention has become the new frontier for exploitation, with tech giants treating it as a resource to be ruthlessly extracted. This alarming trend, dubbed “human fracking,” is compromising our psychological well-being, our deliberative politics, and the very fabric of our humanity. But a growing movement is fighting back, determined to reclaim our attention and use it to shape the world we want to live in.
The statistics are staggering: nearly 70% of the global population now owns a smartphone, and these devices account for around 95% of internet access points worldwide. On average, people are spending close to half their waking hours staring at screens, with the figure even higher among the younger generation in the developed world.
This unprecedented technological shift has enabled a new form of exploitation, where “human frackers” pump a relentless stream of addictive content into our faces, forcing a torrent of human attention to the surface that can then be monetised. Just as petroleum frackers extract valuable resources from the earth, these digital frackers are plundering our inner landscapes, with devastating consequences.
The stakes are existential, as the commodification of our attention threatens to undermine our very ability to care, think, and engage with the world around us. The problem is not the technology itself, but the way it is being wielded to exploit our consciousness on a societal scale.
However, as history has shown, new forms of exploitation often give rise to novel forms of resistance. A growing coalition of activists, academics, and concerned citizens are coalescing under the banner of “attention activism,” determined to push back against the human frackers and reclaim the power of our attention.
The movement is rooted in the understanding that true human attention is not the mindless scrolling and swiping of screen time, but rather the deeper qualities of love, curiosity, and care. By fostering diverse forms of study and creating sanctuaries for the cultivation of life-giving attention, the attention activists aim to undermine the extractive model of the tech giants and build a new politics of human flourishing.
This is not a quixotic endeavour. History has shown that seemingly intractable problems can be overcome when people come together in decisive solidarity. The environmental movement, for instance, went from a fringe concern in the 1950s to a global force just two decades later, leading to landmark changes in public policy and corporate behaviour.
Similarly, the attention activists believe that by harnessing the widespread unease about the corrosive effects of the attention economy, they can catalyse a cultural shift and establish new political structures that reflect the true value of our consciousness. As our grandchildren look back on this era, they may well ask, “How did you all let this happen?” And we must be ready with a compelling answer: that we fought back, that we reclaimed our minds, and that we built a world in which attention is celebrated as the precious resource it truly is.