From an attention economy to an ecology of attending. A manifesto

TL;DR

This paper critiques the attention economy as harmful and proposes an ecological approach rooted in Buddhist philosophy that emphasizes attention as embedded in social and moral contexts to reduce suffering.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of an ecology of attending, shifting focus from individual attention to its systemic, embedded, and ethical dimensions inspired by Buddhist thought.

Findings

Critiques the attention economy as inhumane and harmful.

Proposes an ecological framework for understanding attention.

Emphasizes attention's role in alleviating suffering.

Abstract

As the signatories of this manifesto, we denounce the attention economy as inhumane and a threat to our sociopolitical and ecological well-being. We endorse policymakers' efforts to address the negative consequences of the attention economy's technology, but add that these approaches are often limited in their criticism of the systemic context of human attention. Starting from Buddhist philosophy, we advocate a broader approach: an ecology of attending, that centers on conceptualizing, designing, and using attention (1) in an embedded way and (2) focused on the alleviating of suffering. With 'embedded' we mean that attention is not a neutral, isolated mechanism but a meaning-engendering part of an 'ecology' of bodily, sociotechnical and moral frameworks. With 'focused on the alleviation of suffering' we explicitly move away from the (often implicit) conception of attention as a tool for gratifying desires.