[1-2-Read] Protocols for Rescuing Your Attention pt. 3: Join The Attention Resistance

Welcome to 1-2-Read, a fortnightly letter for paid subscribers! Every issue will give you ideas and practical exercises so that you can walk away as a stronger reader/writer. Your contributions keep the lights on around here, and thank you so much for your support!

(1) The Idea: The Attention Resistance

Welcome back to the finale of our three-part series on rescuing your attention from your screen, and unlike the previous letters, this one will contain very little theory and a lot of examples from my digital minimalism journey.

As a quick recap, in part 1, we gave you the theoretical foundation for why tech platforms are structured the way they are, and why attention is money for these technocrats. In part 2, we argued that shallow engagements with algorithmically curated content are displacing the time you have for quality leisure. And in this letter, I want to share a series of practices that I’ve been implementing in my life as a part of a movement called attention resistance.

There’s a lot written about attention resistance, but the basic idea is that we need to adopt an antagonistic attitude towards tech platforms that market themselves as indispensable. In reality, we can live without most of these platforms, and we just might be better off without them. So, instead of blindly following an algorithm to the next must-have social media sensation, we need to see the actual value that we’re getting from these platforms and withhold our valuable attention from content/features that don’t align with us. In other words, we need to ruthlessly eliminate the excesses of tech use and design a life outside of these platforms that’s worth living. And when enough people start rejecting the unchecked practices of these technocrats, we’ll eventually stand a chance to rebuild a healthier information economy.

(If you want to read about this movement in-depth, Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu and Stolen Focus by Johann Hari are all great places to start)

So, here’s a list of some of the recent practices I adopted to reject the enshittification that’s happening on all major tech platforms.

1: Declare War on Algorithms