Where is your attention right now? Where was it a minute ago? A second ago? Where will it be a minute from now?
One of the primary features of this age — the age of the internet and smartphones and algorithmic feeds — is that our attention is everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
This is no accident. Our devices and apps are engineered to constantly alert ... Show More
Oct 2
Why does killing a bug feel wrong?
The Gray Area is taking a break today — but we’ve got something special for you. We’re dropping an episode from one of our favorite podcasts, Unexplainable from Vox. In it, host Sally Helm considers whether or not it’s ethical to kill lantern flies, an invasive species that has g ... Show More
34m 45s
Aug 2023
Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information
The world is filling with ever more kinds of media, in ever more contexts and formats. Glowing rectangles have become part of the scene; screens, large and small, appear everywhere. Physical locations are increasingly tagged and digitally augmented. Amid this flood, your attentio ... Show More
16m 11s
May 2024
Your Mind Is Being Fracked
<p>The steady dings of notifications. The 40 tabs that greet you when you open your computer in the morning. The hundreds of unread emails, most of them spam, with subject lines pleading or screaming for you to click. Our attention is under assault these days, and most of us are ... Show More
1h 12m
Feb 2022
It's Not Your Fault You Can't Pay Attention. Here's Why.
<p>“The sensation of being alive in the early 21st century consisted of the sense that our ability to pay attention — to focus — was cracking and breaking,” writes Johann Hari in his new book, “Stolen Focus.” Later he says, “It felt like our civilization had been covered with itc ... Show More
1h 6m
Jan 2024
Tired? Distracted? Burned-Out? Listen to This.
<p>I’m convinced that attention is the most important human faculty. Your life, after all, is just the sum total of the things you’ve paid attention to. And we lament our attention issues all the time: how distracted we are, how drained we feel, how hard it is to stay focused or ... Show More
56m 44s
Sep 2025
Episode 34 Developing the Skill of Focus in a Distracted World
<p>The average person checks their phone 96 times per day. We live surrounded by notifications, alerts, and an endless stream of information competing for our attention. While technology has brought incredible advances to our lives, it has also created an environment where sustai ... Show More
18m 12s
Jun 2023
The Marketplace of Attention: How Audiences Take Shape in a Digital Age
Feature films, television shows, homemade videos, tweets, blogs, and breaking news: digital media offer an always-accessible, apparently inexhaustible supply of entertainment and information. Although choices seems endless, public attention is not. How do digital media find the a ... Show More
19m 15s
