Without anyone knowing, our precious attention is being sold.
From television to social media and platform businesses
The one book to understand the era transformed by the attention industry!

Chris Hayes, an MSNBC anchor and New York Times bestselling author, calls the current era, in which human attention is bought and sold like a commodity, the "attention age," and analyzes how commodified attention is changing our times.
Tech companies use sophisticated technology to value the time users spend on their platforms and sell that value to advertisers, while influencers cash in on the attention they receive from others, amassing wealth.
In this era where the logic of 'attention capitalism' dominates, people begin to dig out attention from the human mind like drilling for oil.
We live in an age where people's only concern is how to grab other people's attention.


So what is the essence of this attentional age? What makes us value attention above all else? And where is this age headed?
In "The Siren's Call," which crosses history, philosophy, psychology, and political criticism, we delve into the true nature of the sirens that capture our attention!

Jennifer Szalay, nonfiction critic for the New York Times, praises Chris Hayes's "extensive citation of social science research on how human attention works," unlike previous books on attention, and praises his analytical power and original perspective that delves into practical, concrete issues.

The attention economy is not like a bad new drug being forced on people, an addictive substance with widespread negative effects, or a disruptive new form of media with widespread social impact.
It is a much more profound and entirely different problem.
The most significant characteristic of our age is that our attention is our most important resource and at the same time, the essential element that makes us human.
Unlike external resources like land, coal, and capital, the primary resource of our time lies within our minds.
And to extract this, we must drill deep into our hearts.

--- From Chapter 1, "The Prelude to a Great Transformation"

At any given moment, the struggle to control where we pay attention reorders everything from our inner lives (who we listen to what, how and when we spend time with our loved ones) to our collective public life (which social concerns are discussed and legislated and which are ignored, which deaths are widely mourned and which are quietly forgotten).
All aspects of human life, encompassing the broadest categories of human organization, are being reorganized in the pursuit of interest.

--- From Chapter 1, "The Prelude to a Great Transformation"

Before you can communicate, insult, charm, or do anything else to anyone, you must first make sure your voice does not disappear into the muted background noise.
In fact, 99.9% of the utterances directed at us disappear like that.
Public discourse is now a struggle for the attention of everyone against everyone.
Commerce is also a struggle for attention.
Social life is also a struggle for attention.
Parenting is also a struggle for attention.
We are all tired of this struggle.
This book is an attempt to find peace.

--- From Chapter 1, "The Prelude to a Great Transformation"

The slot machine model has now become the dominant model in the attention-grabbing era.
Most popular social media platforms, including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok, have adopted this approach.
It's no coincidence that the core structure of these platforms, the "feed," is designed to scroll endlessly, like a slot machine.
These apps are structured to maintain our attention through constant stimulation and constant intervention.
That's why it succeeds in holding our attention without much effort.
Cell phones are, so to speak, little slot machines in our pockets.
These devices, readily available for use, have maintained our attention for enormous periods of time simply by repeating the act of capturing our attention.

--- From Chapter 2, "The Slot Machine and Uncle Sam"

Lack of concentration, reduced attention span, and constant distraction are probably the most common complaints of our time.
We all try to avoid moments when our minds feel empty, but the more we try, the more difficult it becomes to find the reward we truly seek: something to immerse ourselves in or focus our full attention on.

--- From Chapter 3, "The Birth of Boredom: The Root of Evil"

Social media, with its combination of mass fame and mass surveillance, increasingly distorts our most basic impulses.
The act of loving and being loved, caring and being cared for, or making friends laugh with jokes, is now being transformed into a project to impress strangers.
By definition, this project can't fulfill our desires, but it feels so close to real human connection that we can't help but pursue it more and more compulsively.

--- From Chapter 4, "Giant Industries, Interesting Businesses"

Attention is as old as human history.
Attracting the attention of others for social purposes is as old as shamans, poets, and conversation.
But attention is now commodified, traded through sophisticated, instantaneous algorithmic auctions, available for buying and selling.
Every second our eyes are focused on is priced.
It's new, it's innovative, and it's alienating.
--- From Chapter 5, “Commodification of Attention”

The experience that defines the attention age is a particular kind of alienation.
It is the feeling that our inner life, the direction of our thoughts, is moving against our will.
This stems from the sophisticated development of attention markets that have found increasingly efficient ways to extract and commodify our attention.
But our attention is different from other commodities.
Attention is a virtual commodity.
It is a market commodity that can be priced, yet at the same time it is inseparable from our humanity.
The alienation we feel stems from the tension between attention as a market commodity and attention as the essence of our lives.

--- From Chapter 5, “Commodification of Attention”

Much of the current attention economy operates around the exchange of money and attention.
In other words, the trade-off between money and attention is a two-way street.
People gather attention and turn it into money.
For example, this is how Instagram influencers sign endorsement deals with high-profit brands.
Conversely, people also spend money to get attention.
Like Elon Musk, who spent $44 billion (approximately 62 trillion won at October 2022 exchange rates) to make his bad tweets readable to others.

--- From Chapter 6, "The Dawn of the Attention Age"

One thing that ties Elon Musk, Kanye West, and Donald Trump together is their remarkable ability to consistently command attention.
But that's not the whole story, is it? Taylor Swift, while also incredibly attention-grabbing, isn't part of this "cursed trinity."
Above all, she is excellent at attracting positive attention.
She is a star in the traditional sense.
On the other hand, Musk, West, and Trump are in a completely different category.
They are figures who cause extreme polarization and seem addicted to controversy.
The most important thing is that they are prime examples of people who constantly consume negative attention.
In other words, they are trolls.

--- From Chapter 7, “Attention and the Public Sphere: In the Gunfire of the Attention War”

As we live in the attention-based age, our anxiety and depression are increasing, our sense of isolation is deepening, and our social skills are becoming weaker.
The number of friends and the frequency of meeting friends also gradually decreased.
We are having more and more difficulty maintaining attention, reading deeply, and learning new things.
The political sphere is becoming more fragmented and polarized, and the information environment is becoming increasingly polluted.
This situation cannot be left unattended.
Isn't that right? I don't think this situation should continue.
There are several open, forward-looking, non-exclusive paths before us to reclaim collective control of our minds.

--- From Chapter 8, “Life After the Attention Age”

What do we want to focus on? If all the technologies and companies competing for our attention disappeared, and our attention was no longer commodified or extracted, what would we choose to focus on?
--- From Chapter 8, “Life After the Attention Age”

The gap between what we actually pay attention to and what we want to pay attention to creates alienation.
And the first step to solving this is to ask ourselves what we truly want.
Imagine that you have the ability to completely control your attention.
If you could focus on anything for as long as you wanted, with the power of an X-Man, what would you do with it?
--- From Chapter 8, “Life After the Attention Age”

We must use every tool and strategy imaginable to reclaim our will.
And as conscious beings with willpower, we must create a world where we can focus our attention where we want.
That world should be a place where we can fully function and thrive as whole human beings.
It should be a world where, as liberated souls, we can listen to the crashing waves with our ears open, untethered from the mast, shake off the lure of the sirens, and safely return to our loved ones.

--- From Chapter 8, “Life After the Attention Age”