JA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
1/15 The world isn’t falling apart—it’s being pried apart, one stolen moment at a time. Attention has become the most coveted commodity, and we’re little more than unwitting marks in a global grift. The apps, platforms, and systems sucking up our time aren’t tools anymore. 🧵
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
2/15 They’re precision weapons, engineered to hijack your focus and dismantle your autonomy.
Think of your attention as a finite currency—except you didn’t sign up for the bank account, and every time you try to withdraw, someone else has already spent it.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
3/15 What’s left behind is a hollowed-out version of you: overwhelmed, distracted, and unknowingly complicit in your own exploitation. This is the obsession economy, and you’re its most profitable product.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
4/15 It’s not an accident. Every infinite scroll, every notification badge, every “you might also like” suggestion is a calculated move in a larger game of psychological chess. These systems want your patterns, your desires, your unconscious impulses.
Show threadJA Westenberg
5/15 They want to turn you into a predictable machine that clicks, buys, and reacts on cue. And they’re good at it. Very fucking good.
Nov 18, 2024 at 8:35amTypefully
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
6/15 They know how to weaponize your dopamine and hold it hostage. The more you give in, the more they refine their techniques, locking you into a feedback loop where every swipe feels necessary but leaves you emptier than before.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
7/15 The more distracted you are, the less likely you are to notice who’s actually profiting from your fractured attention.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
8/15 We like to pretend that we’re in control, that we’re the savvy operators of our own lives. But try putting your phone down for a day, and you’ll feel the phantom itch of those notifications you’re not getting.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
9/15 Try watching TV without simultaneously scrolling through Twitter or Instagram, and you’ll feel the unbearable weight of being alone with a single thought.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
10/15 They’ve wired us to fear boredom, to avoid stillness at all costs, because those are the cracks where self-awareness might slip through. And self-awareness? That’s bad for business.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
11/15 How do you break free when the deck is stacked against you? You start small, but you start ruthless. Call it a focus detox. Turn off every non-essential notification. Reclaim your mornings—don’t let them be the first sacrifice on the altar of the algorithm.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
12/15 Create physical barriers: leave your phone in another room, or better yet, replace it with something analog, something real. Teach yourself to tolerate boredom again. Rebuild the muscle of attention like it’s an ancient skill you’re re-learning after centuries of amnesia.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
13/15 And here’s the hard truth: this isn’t a one-time fix. It’s a war. The systems that profit off your distraction aren’t going to roll over just because you’ve had an epiphany. They’re going to come back harder, slicker, more insidious. You have to be ready for that.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024
14/15 This has nothing to do with productivity or efficiency. It’s about agency. It’s about deciding who you want to be in a world where every moment is a battleground.
Show threadJA WestenbergNov 18, 2024

15/15 It’s about saying no—not just to the apps, but to the entire premise that you are nothing more than a collection of clicks and likes.

If attention is a weapon, it’s time to take it back.

Show threadAlbert CardonaNov 18, 2024
@Daojoan It's also about having an alternative for what to do with yourself and your time. Takes days after putting down the smartphone to stop being in reactive mode and start having creative thoughts.
Show threadroodNov 18, 2024
@albertcardona @Daojoan this is why I quit Twitter before Elon Musk. I was sick of walking around framing tweets in my head all day long. I needed to just live again.
Show threadJoris MeysNov 18, 2024
@rood @albertcardona @Daojoan this ☝️
Show threadDusk to Don Nov 18, 2024

@Daojoan

This is an incredible thread. Thank you for all of your writing.

I'm juuuust starting this book, but it seems amazing, and how we direct our attention, inward and outward, is a central focus of the book.

About the author: "Kasia's perspective on power is unique. Over the course of nearly 20 years, she has worked as professional Dominatrix, practiced Taoist alchemy in one of the oldest female-led monasteries in China"

My spouse is reading it for a book club with a group of Empowered Goddesses.

She came home from their first gathering and told me,

"Babe, guess what? You'll be proud. We discussed what app we should use for our group-chat, and decided on @signalapp "

https://www.kasiaurbaniak.com/unbound-book

THE BOOK — KASIA URBANIAK

KASIA URBANIAK
Show threadViolet MadderNov 18, 2024

@dusk @Daojoan @signalapp

Ooh!

Show threadSpare JoeNov 18, 2024
@Daojoan Need to make corporate social media uncool and alternatives cool. Probably through social media campaigns, ironically. And other prongs.
Show threadBrett RNov 18, 2024
@Daojoan All of this. I'd add in the sense of inevitability: it's true only because and as long as people believe it is inevitable. Realization of these problems should lead to hope and action, not resignation.
Show threadlevampyreNov 18, 2024

@Daojoan 💯 When my kids ask me why I am restricting their display time I usually answer them: Because I want you to get bored. Bored people get ideas and people with ideas get creative and creative people change the world.

I don't want my kids to become 24/7 consumers.

Show threadNymanTechNov 19, 2024

@Daojoan

Thanks. I needed this.

Show threadMaximilian MackhNov 18, 2024
@Daojoan what helps a little: rigorously unsubscribe from every newsletter. Don’t opt in to notifications. Turn off any notification sound. Turn off all interface sounds and clicks.
Show threadCartyBostonNov 18, 2024

@Daojoan

I have been around for a long time. I *can't* remember what I used to do. Carry books? Talk to people? Stare at the wall?

I think I was pretty happy.

Show threadPuncha Not See 🏳️‍⚧️Nov 18, 2024

@CartyBoston @Daojoan

When I was a teenager, I recognized that I was growing dependent on my wristwatch. I felt that I was becoming hypervigilant of time and decided to stop wearing the watch.

Today's "wristwatch" has a much stronger hold on me. 🌸