The Sirens' Call
How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
Chris Hayes
- **An
- Instant
- #1
- New
- York
- Times
- BestsellerFrom
- the
- New
- York
- Times
- bestselling
- author
- and
- MSNBC
- and
- podcast
- host,
- a
- powerful
- wide-angle
- reckoning
- with
- how
- the
- assault
- from
- attention
- capitalism
- on
- our
- minds
- and
- our
- hearts
- has
- reordered
- our
- politics
- and
- the
- very
- fabric
- of
- our
- society“An
- ambitious
- analysis
- of
- how
- the
- trivial
- amusements
- offered
- by
- online
- life
- have
- degraded
- not
- only
- our
- selves
- but
- also
- our
- politics.”
- —New
- York
- Times“Brilliant
- book…
- Reading
- it
- has
- made
- me
- change
- the
- way
- I
- work
- and
- think.”—Rachel
- Maddow**We
- all
- feel
- it—the
- distraction,
- the
- loss
- of
- focus,
- the
- addictive
- focus
- on
- the
- wrong
- things
- for
- too
- long.
- We
- bump
- into
- the
- zombies
- on
- their
- phones
- in
- the
- street,
- and
- sometimes
- they’re
- us.
- We
- stare
- in
- pity
- at
- the
- four
- people
- at
- the
- table
- in
- the
- restaurant,
- all
- on
- their
- phones,
- and
- then
- we
- feel
- the
- buzz
- in
- our
- pocket.
- Something
- has
- changed
- utterly:
- for
- most
- of
- human
- history,
- the
- boundary
- between
- public
- and
- private
- has
- been
- clear,
- at
- least
- in
- theory.
- Now,
- as
- Chris
- Hayes
- writes,
- “With
- the
- help
- of
- a
- few
- tech
- firms,
- we
- basically
- tore
- it
- down
- in
- about
- a
- decade.”
- Hayes
- argues
- that
- we
- are
- in
- the
- midst
- of
- an
- epoch-defining
- transition
- whose
- only
- parallel
- is
- what
- happened
- to
- labor
- in
- the
- nineteenth
- century:
- attention
- has
- become
- a
- commodified
- resource
- extracted
- from
- us,
- and
- from
- which
- we
- are
- increasingly
- alienated.
- The
- Sirens’
- Call
- is
- the
- big-picture
- vision
- we
- urgently
- need
- to
- offer
- clarity
- and
- guidance.Because
- there
- is
- a
- breaking
- point.
- Sirens
- are
- designed
- to
- compel
- us,
- and
- now
- they
- are
- going
- off
- in
- our
- bedrooms
- and
- kitchens
- at
- all
- hours
- of
- the
- day
- and
- night,
- doing
- the
- bidding
- of
- vast
- empires,
- the
- most
- valuable
- companies
- in
- history,
- built
- on
- harvesting
- human
- attention.
- As
- Hayes
- writes,
- “Now
- our
- deepest
- neurological
- structures,
- human
- evolutionary
- inheritances,
- and
- social
- impulses
- are
- in
- a
- habitat
- designed
- to
- prey
- upon,
- to
- cultivate,
- distort,
- or
- destroy
- that
- which
- most
- fundamentally
- makes
- us
- human.”
- The
- Sirens’
- Call
- is
- the
- book
- that
- snaps
- everything
- into
- a
- single
- holistic
- framework
- so
- that
- we
- can
- wrest
- back
- control
- of
- our
- lives,
- our
- politics,
- and
- our future.
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