Hayes argues that we’ve entered the Attention Age, where human focus-unlike the infinite expanse of digital content-has become the most limited commodity. He likens modern platforms (social media, games, streaming) to digital slot machines, engineered to constantly hijack involuntary attention through features like infinite scroll and push notifications. This monetization of attention fuels a relentless competition among platforms for eyeballs, reshaping the news, politics, and public discourse into arenas of sensationalism, outrage, and ideological polarization.
To reclaim our mental autonomy, Hayes advocates for a combination of individual strategies-such as embracing analogue habits (reading print newspapers, using “dumb” phones)-and systemic interventions, including government regulation akin to labour laws for attention markets, and setting hard limits on screen time or app usage. He spotlights grassroots movements-like “attentional farmers’ markets”-that seek to liberate people from the endless pull of attention-harvesting algorithms.