Your Attention Has Been STOLEN | Peter Boghossian & Johann Hari

Johann Hari is a British-Swiss author and journalist, known for his books and his articles in The Independent and Huffington Post. Since 2015, his writing has primarily dealt with the war on drugs, mental illness, and decreasing attention spans. His books on these subjects include Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Lost Connections, and Stolen Focus.

In this conversation, Johann and I talk about the variables vying for our attention and their effects on society. Though Johann mentions twelve variables in his book, we focus primarily on social media. Johann and I offer observations of people addicted to technology, and we discuss evidence-based ways to combat this problem. Additionally, we speak about algorithms and their incentives to keep users "angry and scrolling."

Finally, we take the conversation to the implications our shortened attention spans have on interpersonal relationships, political participation, and democracy.

Johann's books: https://johannhari.com/
Johann on X: https://twitter.com/johannhari101
Johann's Ted Talks: https://www.ted.com/search?q=johann%20hari

Chapters
0:00 Intro
2:40 The "Attention Crisis"
5:00 Twitter/phone addiction
12:05 Real-life examples of technology addiction
24:00 How social media addicts us / what to do about it
37:50 Public ownership of information
40:40 TikTok & algorithms
57:40 Social media & democracy
1:05:52 Lack of ability to listen
1:16:45 How humans misunderstand each other
1:19:05 Extrinsic vs intrinsic factors
1:26:40 Attention Economy

⸺SUPPORT MY WORK⸺
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⸺LINKS⸺
Podcast: "Conversations with Peter Boghossian": https://pod.link/1650150225
Website | https://peterboghossian.com/
National Progress Alliance | https://www.nationalprogressalliance.org/
Resignation Letter | https://peterboghossian.com/my-resignation-letter

⸺BOOKS⸺
“How To Have Impossible Conversations” | https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738285323/ref=cm_sw_r_api_i_7DPKY2S21SSNAV8PCBW3_0
“A Manual For Creating Atheists” | https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Creating-Atheists-Peter-Boghossian/dp/1939578094/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1664805100&sr=1-2

⸺SOCIAL MEDIA⸺
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#peterboghossian #attentioneconomy #democracy