The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource

by Chris Hayes

Social attention from strangers is the psychological equivalent of empty calories, and the tantalizing opportunity of the buffet of social attention that our phones now provide can lead us to gorge. Starvation for many in the modern context is less of a threat than abundance. Cheap processed foods have democratized the ability to overeat, leading to spiking obesity rates around the world—even as there are hundreds of millions who still face the possibility of starvation. We are as a human race “stuffed and starved,” in the memorable phrase of author Raj Patel.[51] And so it is with social attention: we are stuffed with it and starved of it all at once. There are millions still isolated, alone, literally dying from lack of social attention, and yet at the very same time the possibility of too much social attention has now been democratized, possible to achieve for more people than ever before.