Radical Attention
New short book for Peninsula Press . . .
An essay on the battle for our attention in the age of distraction.
Attention pays. In today‘s online economy it has become a commodity to be bought and sold. Bombarding us with free smartphone apps and news websites, developers and advertisers have turned what and how to focus our attention into the world‘s fastest-growing industry.
In exchange for our attention, information and entertainment are ever at our fingertips. But at what cost? In this essay, at once personal and polemical, meditative and militant, Julia Bell asks what has been lost in this trade-off. How can we reclaim our attention? In a world of infinite distraction, how can attention become radical?
Praise for Radical Attention
‘Terrifying, clarifying and ultimately hopeful, this is an essential book. Julia Bell grapples with the grim realities of our online lives, setting out possibilities for resisting and reclaiming our imperilled freedoms.’ - Olivia Laing
‘This is a brilliant, beautiful and necessary essay. I read it twice in one sitting: once with my fingers hovering on the phone beside me, and then again with my phone turned off.’ - Lyndsey Stonebridge