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Attensity!

A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement
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Attensity!

By: The Friends of Attention
Narrated by: Alyssa Loh, Peter Schmidt, David Graham Burnett
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

We all feel it: something is seriously wrong. Our attention—that essential ability to give our minds and senses to the world—is being trapped, gutted, and sold out from under us by an industry of immense technological and financial power. The heedless exploitation of this vital capacity by a handful of tech companies is harming us all, reducing our very selfhood to that which can be quantified, bought, and sold—and shaking the foundations of our democracy.

To push back against this 'human fracking,”'we need more than individual willpower or isolated efforts. We need a movement of collective resistance. Such a movement is beginning to bloom, and in this radical, first-of-its-kind guide, The Friends of Attention show us how to join the fight. We meet welders, nurses, poets, and surfers, all of whom are engaged in attentional practices. We learn to seek out sanctuaries—theatres and museums, houses of worship, dance parties—where together we can take refuge from the frackers. Drawing on a rich legacy of critical intellectuals and the creative wisdom of diverse traditions, Attensity! takes our apocalyptic present, turns it on its head, and reveals new vistas of human flourishing.

© The Friends of Attention 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Activism & Social Justice Consciousness & Thought History & Culture Philosophy Politics & Government Social Sciences Technology & Society

Critic Reviews

Attensity! reminds us that how we attend to the world shapes what the world can be for us, and for one another. With a lively, even joyful blend of philosophical seriousness and practical imagination, it invites us to see attention not as a private asset to be hoarded but as a shared capacity to be cultivated and protected (Kwame Anthony Appiah)
Attensity! is a thrilling declaration of independence from tech's tyranny over our human spirits. We feel the human and humane surge to renewed life through its call to each of us to reclaim ownership of our own attention, and of the actions we can cultivate with it—for ourselves and in our own names, instead of at the bidding of machines (Danielle Allen)
At a time when most reports are of the world getting worse, here’s a zinging, erudite book that arrives with the happy news that one thing can get better if we put our minds to it. Attensity is about how to reclaim one of our most powerful and valuable qualities—our attention—through a path back to the human things that matter: community, care, imagination, and art. It’s both a keen historical analysis and a call to movement-building from a group of people who have spent years working in the libraries and the classrooms but also, with the shared force of their attention, in the ever-changing streets (Nathan Heller)
A stirring battle cry on behalf of our shared humanity against the forces that seek to diminish and degrade it. Downright invigorating. Just what the moment calls for (Chris Hayes)
This is an ambitious text that will demand much of all of us readers beyond the page. It is asking vital questions about the potential of re-wiring our lives in a time of growing crisis, where avalanches of information and access threaten the present and future of care, of close attention. Very thankful to have spent time with this (Hanif Abdurraqib)
It is not always that you come across a book that changes how you see the world. Attensity is an extraordinary book - every chapter has revelations that will make you stop and reconsider how you are living your life, and reclaim the life that we have been given (Tim Wu)
Pay attention: If you are human you must read this book. Also, please note that the term “attention” has been colonized and made to mean the opposite of what it used to. According to AI people, it now means clearing out context to make less work for pattern-finding algorithms. Don’t let algorithms clear YOU out (Jaron Lanier)
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