The growth machine has pushed humans beyond the limits of our minds—but it is also pushing the planet beyond its ecological limits. And these two crises, I was coming to believe, are intertwined.

but I believe that if an Attention Rebellion begins, we will, sooner or later, have to take on this very deep issue: the growth machine itself.

we are living in an economic machine that requires greater speed to keep going—and that inevitably degrades our attention over time.

“You don’t get what you don’t fight for.”

I could see that in the pandemic, the environment changed—and this wrecked our ability to focus. For many of us, the pandemic didn’t create new factors that ruined our attention—it supercharged the factors that had already been corroding our attention for years.

Nadine has shown that experiencing violence damages your ability to focus.

“negativity bias.”

if they showed you a photo of a crowd, and some of the people in it were happy, and some angry, you would instinctively pick out the angry faces first.

The algorithm they actually use varies all the time, but it has one key driving principle that is consistent. It shows you things that will keep you looking at your screen. That’s it. Remember: the more time you look, the more money they make.