Pathologies of the attention economy(theconvivialsociety.substack.com)
theconvivialsociety.substack.com
Pathologies of the attention economy
https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-pathologies-of-the-attention
34 comments
ADHD isn't necessarily a pathology. I.e. arguably there is nothing "wrong" with most people with that diagnoses, it is simply an adaptation where there was an evolutionarily stable balance of temperaments where some nontrivial ratio of people are more like seekers and wanderers and not satisfied with buckling down and doing the same stuff repeatedly.
ADHD is also at least in some people, a developmental problem sort of like a muscle imbalance where people learn to do an action with a set of muscles and neglect whole muscle groups and end up kind of able to do everything but with drawbacks because they weren't trained properly.
After a concussion and extensive testing, I discovered the latter about myself. There are a lot of things I'm quite good at with neurological tests and one working memory test that I'm just terrible at. So much started making sense when I discovered this about my whole life. And maybe my brain is just weird but what I actually think is it's something that just never got trained because I got good at other things early which compensated.
Now the struggle is finding professionals interested in helping instead of telling me everything will be better with an SSRI and talk about my feelings.
I'm sure that I'm still a certain kind of person, but a lot of my "symptoms" could actually be trained away if properly measured and exercised.
ADHD is also at least in some people, a developmental problem sort of like a muscle imbalance where people learn to do an action with a set of muscles and neglect whole muscle groups and end up kind of able to do everything but with drawbacks because they weren't trained properly.
After a concussion and extensive testing, I discovered the latter about myself. There are a lot of things I'm quite good at with neurological tests and one working memory test that I'm just terrible at. So much started making sense when I discovered this about my whole life. And maybe my brain is just weird but what I actually think is it's something that just never got trained because I got good at other things early which compensated.
Now the struggle is finding professionals interested in helping instead of telling me everything will be better with an SSRI and talk about my feelings.
I'm sure that I'm still a certain kind of person, but a lot of my "symptoms" could actually be trained away if properly measured and exercised.
If you want to learn more about ADHD there's a intresting book about it called "ADHD doesn't exist" which relates over 40 years in the matter by a specialist of the field.
The author explains that ADHD is too often treated as the problem itself when it's "just" symptoms. He also takes time to explain every source he's observed to cause there symptoms, how he looks for them with daily patients and what to do/how to deal with these problems properly.
I learnt a lot about myself and what could realy be the cause of my ADHD reading it.
"Wanting to invite someone into my brain for the day" really resonates with me.
There is still a stereotype of ADHD as the hyperactive child: running around, yelling, disrupting others. When your ADHD presents as absentmindedness, lack of attention and staying on task, daydreaming and so on it is much easier for it to go unnoticed.
I have plenty of ADHD symptoms that will be noticed by those around me. Forgetfulness, distractibility, poor working memory but it's really just the tip of the iceberg.
There is still a stereotype of ADHD as the hyperactive child: running around, yelling, disrupting others. When your ADHD presents as absentmindedness, lack of attention and staying on task, daydreaming and so on it is much easier for it to go unnoticed.
I have plenty of ADHD symptoms that will be noticed by those around me. Forgetfulness, distractibility, poor working memory but it's really just the tip of the iceberg.
> begs the question
doesn't mean what you think it means
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
doesn't mean what you think it means
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
It may surprise you to learn that I know the technical meaning of “begging the question” and have used it correctly. That is, the article argues (roughly) “ADHD is caused by internet,” which begs the question: why doesn’t everyone with internet have ADHD?
Begging the question, as the Wikipedia article you link explains, is a logical fallacy akin to circular reasoning: x is some way because it is x. My usage of the term was calling out this weakness in the article. I am not completely sure what the intent of your comment is and suspect you might be leaning on your awareness of this lesser-known fact as a sort of thought-terminating cliche.
Begging the question, as the Wikipedia article you link explains, is a logical fallacy akin to circular reasoning: x is some way because it is x. My usage of the term was calling out this weakness in the article. I am not completely sure what the intent of your comment is and suspect you might be leaning on your awareness of this lesser-known fact as a sort of thought-terminating cliche.
The beauty of language, as soon as many people believe it means something, that is what it means now.
I think the common usage for the original begging the question would probably be tautological reasoning nowadays.
Both uses of “begging the question” are common, and since the fallacy sense is invariably intransitive and the “raising the question” sense transitive (specifying the question as a direct object), they aren’t even ambiguous. As a bonus, the transitive sense also makes a convenient rationalization of the fallacy sense (which on its own is a iffy translation into non-current English of the Latin name of the fallacy), which can be seen as (despite very different etymology) being equivalent to the transitive sense with “what is the justification of the premise being discussed?” as the implicit object.
The pedantry that approves only the intransitive usage and rejects the transitive usage is silly on several levels.
The pedantry that approves only the intransitive usage and rejects the transitive usage is silly on several levels.
Perhaps, but deliberately using the expression incorrectly is even sillier. All you're going to do is annoy people or make them think you're ignorant. What's the point in that? What's wrong with saying "raise the question" or "prompt the question" instead, which is also more logical? What is the point of taking a pompous old-fashioned expression and using it incorrectly?
I'm not opposed to linguistic innovation if it makes the language more elegant or more expressive, but misuse of "beg the question" is just ugly and cringe-inducing.
I'm not opposed to linguistic innovation if it makes the language more elegant or more expressive, but misuse of "beg the question" is just ugly and cringe-inducing.
> Perhaps, but deliberately using the expression incorrectly is even sillier.
It's not incorrect, and calling it that is exactly the misguided pedantry referred to in GP.
> I'm not opposed to linguistic innovation if it makes the language more elegant or more expressive
The intransitive sense of “begs the question” does exactly that, and I explained how it does that in GP. Also, its been in common use long enough that it is hardly "innovation”; the persistent pedantic struggle against it is a reactionary struggle for linguistic regression. Which might still make some sense, if the usage was one which created confusion or obscured meaning, but its not.
It's not incorrect, and calling it that is exactly the misguided pedantry referred to in GP.
> I'm not opposed to linguistic innovation if it makes the language more elegant or more expressive
The intransitive sense of “begs the question” does exactly that, and I explained how it does that in GP. Also, its been in common use long enough that it is hardly "innovation”; the persistent pedantic struggle against it is a reactionary struggle for linguistic regression. Which might still make some sense, if the usage was one which created confusion or obscured meaning, but its not.
begs the question is just so much more elegant and expressive than raise or prompts that it is really sort of funny to assert otherwise.
Having said this, on the internet, I must now defend it.
to beg in conversation is of course more energetic than raising or prompting. When you beg it is urgent, a question that has been raised can be tabled for later, a prompt can be ignored as we point at a different reporter we know is more likely to ask about how this affects the First Lady, but if the question is being begged it demands an answer from us.
To beg calls forth the image naturally, for those who think in images, of a beggar. A beggar has moral urgency, they need what we have to give, and that moral urgency of the image is transferred to the question implied by the subject of discussion.
To prompt or raise a question have absolutely no visual analogue, they are lifeless, bloodless, and should be buried before rotting.
Why do you think that this more common usage of beg the question has come into play? It's not (necessarily) ignorance, I believe the cause is that the phrasing in English far better supports what is wanted and this allowed the phrase itself to spread among the population as a tool for expressing thought.
Having said this, on the internet, I must now defend it.
to beg in conversation is of course more energetic than raising or prompting. When you beg it is urgent, a question that has been raised can be tabled for later, a prompt can be ignored as we point at a different reporter we know is more likely to ask about how this affects the First Lady, but if the question is being begged it demands an answer from us.
To beg calls forth the image naturally, for those who think in images, of a beggar. A beggar has moral urgency, they need what we have to give, and that moral urgency of the image is transferred to the question implied by the subject of discussion.
To prompt or raise a question have absolutely no visual analogue, they are lifeless, bloodless, and should be buried before rotting.
Why do you think that this more common usage of beg the question has come into play? It's not (necessarily) ignorance, I believe the cause is that the phrasing in English far better supports what is wanted and this allowed the phrase itself to spread among the population as a tool for expressing thought.
If I'll annoy grammarians and pedants, and only they will think I'm ignorant, then that's okay with me.
Language isn't logical. It's a bricolage of things people have done to communicate. It's a mash-up of many different tools all trying to accomplish a hundred different things, and if people can't find a handy screwdriver, they may successfully use a butterknife instead.
Language isn't logical. It's a bricolage of things people have done to communicate. It's a mash-up of many different tools all trying to accomplish a hundred different things, and if people can't find a handy screwdriver, they may successfully use a butterknife instead.
You know who wrote a ton about attention in the past?
Monks.
Reading about how medieval monks conceived of attention and distraction in both functional and spiritual contexts is useful to ground the conversation in how technology (here, often literacy) impacts our ability to do what we mean to do. It is a lot easier (given more generally available/palatable sources) to begin the conversation at the dawn of the modern, but we really shouldn't!
(I'll bet you there's good stuff outside European/Western history, too, I just happen to know the Christian monastic stuff)
Monks.
Reading about how medieval monks conceived of attention and distraction in both functional and spiritual contexts is useful to ground the conversation in how technology (here, often literacy) impacts our ability to do what we mean to do. It is a lot easier (given more generally available/palatable sources) to begin the conversation at the dawn of the modern, but we really shouldn't!
(I'll bet you there's good stuff outside European/Western history, too, I just happen to know the Christian monastic stuff)
In yoga philosophy, the yoga sutras specifically, the idea of “ekagraha” , or one pointed concentration is very important. Some commentators also promote the idea of not being distracted in the beginning by residing in a remote place (a meadow, a hut or cave) usually under the tutelage of a master (guru)
I think hermits in christianity did much the same.
Daoism also has good remarks, but I am not qualified to speak on that.
I think hermits in christianity did much the same.
Daoism also has good remarks, but I am not qualified to speak on that.
There's an interesting variant: older Christian denominations emphasize communion, which means you can go off into the wilderness ("the green martyrdom"), but there's also pressure to be close enough to a priest to celebrate Mass at some interval. This led to the buck-wild phenomenon of the anchoritic life, where you would get a tiny little prison cell built onto the side of a church with a little window in the church wall so you could take communion, and then... live there. Julian of Norwich is my favorite (everyone's favorite?) if you want to look anything up; people from the town would go talk to her at a window on the outside side and she'd give counsel and pray for people and such. https://julianofnorwich.org/pages/who-is-julian-of-norwich
Can you recommend any literature or resources related to Christian monastic thinking on cultivating attention?
Hmm. I would say that the things to look up are the midday demon - you will see that later writings psychologize "acedia" more (another useful term; sort of represents executive dysfunction, though often especially the kind you get from depression), but I think it's fascinating to read those earliest writings that are portraying distraction as this external force that acts upon you. In this genre: the advice given to monks on how to stay focused, at work or at prayer. Re: work, copyists' complaints particularly have interesting analogical merit. Re: prayer, "lectio divina boredom" might be a good rabbit hole to go down.
One day I confessed a few sins to a very, very young priest, and he immediately discerned that I suffer from acedia. I'd never even heard of it, but he recommended a book for me to read, which I devoured. And it turns out that acedia is truly a rampant scourge of the modern world that is barely recognized for what it is.
You know how when you're sick but you have no diagnosis, it's difficult to treat or heal from it? Yeah, that's how it is spiritually. If you don't know the root causes or motivations for your sinful ways, you can't escape them and you're still in slavery.
So once I identified acedia (and it's a slippery, amorphous, insidious malady) I was able to make great progress along the path. In fact, God granted me the graces of self-knowledge and introspection so that I could further discern my identit, my vocation, and my destiny.
Yep so if you're doomscrolling your smartphone all day, or if you're addicted to Netflix/YouTube, you're probably suffering from acedia just as much as the French loved their absinthe and opium. Get diagnosed and get some help from above!
You know how when you're sick but you have no diagnosis, it's difficult to treat or heal from it? Yeah, that's how it is spiritually. If you don't know the root causes or motivations for your sinful ways, you can't escape them and you're still in slavery.
So once I identified acedia (and it's a slippery, amorphous, insidious malady) I was able to make great progress along the path. In fact, God granted me the graces of self-knowledge and introspection so that I could further discern my identit, my vocation, and my destiny.
Yep so if you're doomscrolling your smartphone all day, or if you're addicted to Netflix/YouTube, you're probably suffering from acedia just as much as the French loved their absinthe and opium. Get diagnosed and get some help from above!
What a perceptive priest! Makes me kind of wish we Episcopalians had a routine around one-on-one confession - we have a rite of confession ("Reconciliation of a Penitent") in our prayer book, and any good priest would be happy to accommodate that request, but we don't have the physical (confession booths) or temporal ("Father So-and-So hears confessions every Saturday from 10-12") structures that put the idea into someone's head for "minor" sins.
However, at every worship service, we communally recite a confession of sins, and the phrase "and left undone" usually jiggles a couple things loose that, indeed, I have failed to do, to the usually slight but compounding detriment of my family or my colleagues - in other words, small (but compounding) sins of omission.
Unfortunately, I'd feel rather impolite pulling out a notepad or my phone to jot that down, and I've usually forgotten what it was by the time church lets out... (edited to add) but I could discreetly jot it down on the service leaflet.
And now I've looked up "acedia," and would love to know the title or author of that book your priest had you read.
However, at every worship service, we communally recite a confession of sins, and the phrase "and left undone" usually jiggles a couple things loose that, indeed, I have failed to do, to the usually slight but compounding detriment of my family or my colleagues - in other words, small (but compounding) sins of omission.
Unfortunately, I'd feel rather impolite pulling out a notepad or my phone to jot that down, and I've usually forgotten what it was by the time church lets out... (edited to add) but I could discreetly jot it down on the service leaflet.
And now I've looked up "acedia," and would love to know the title or author of that book your priest had you read.
This sounds interesting. Do you have any reading suggestions?
The Cloud of Unknowing is my favorite monkly advice, though possibly because it's been given a very nice modern English translation (other stuff might be just as good if treated with as much interpretive freedom?). While you'll find immediately that it's talking about attention during prayer, the way distraction is discussed is still really generally useful. Some excerpts here: https://www.theculturium.com/the-cloud-of-unknowing/#attachm...
Thomas Aquinas talked about attention/boredom, I think, but I can't read him unless I'm in a very particular mindset so I don't have much to cite you.
Hm. I looked a bit at some different stuff but the problem is that I can't really recommend e.g. [The Imitation of Christ](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_the_Imitation_of_Christ) unless you're really looking to spend a while with medieval Christianity for its own sake, with the treatment of attention sort of incidental. I will think more and come back to this comment thread if I come up with a better rec. (I'll also note that a tragic portion of this stuff is dead-tree-only)
Thomas Aquinas talked about attention/boredom, I think, but I can't read him unless I'm in a very particular mindset so I don't have much to cite you.
Hm. I looked a bit at some different stuff but the problem is that I can't really recommend e.g. [The Imitation of Christ](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_the_Imitation_of_Christ) unless you're really looking to spend a while with medieval Christianity for its own sake, with the treatment of attention sort of incidental. I will think more and come back to this comment thread if I come up with a better rec. (I'll also note that a tragic portion of this stuff is dead-tree-only)
https://librivox.org/the-imitation-of-christ-by-thomas-a-kem...
A priest friend recommended Thomas a Kempis to me, and I enjoyed listening to this audiobook version. Yes, it's not for the agnostics or the faint of heart, but it is an amazing explication of what it means to be a faithful layman and follower of Jesus.
A priest friend recommended Thomas a Kempis to me, and I enjoyed listening to this audiobook version. Yes, it's not for the agnostics or the faint of heart, but it is an amazing explication of what it means to be a faithful layman and follower of Jesus.
On the other side of the coin, "meditation" seems to be gaining popularity these days. It promises to make you more in-control of your attention and less vulnerable to the various powers of marketing.
But then they butcher meditation into a product, package it in an app and rent it to you by the month. Lol.
Google "meditation monetization". Smell the unironic gushing and marketspeak.
But then they butcher meditation into a product, package it in an app and rent it to you by the month. Lol.
Google "meditation monetization". Smell the unironic gushing and marketspeak.
It's unusual that this was hypothesized so long ago as a side-effect of material excess, but culturally little has happened to insulate us.
I for one am of the mind that the play button on my pomodoro is the play button on the VCR of my mind. And what price do I pay for having my mind locked behind such a taxing labor to liberate? Well-fed, sheltered, scanned and medicated?
Maybe we catastrophize that the dogear became the bookmark, the radio dial (being dialed-in) transmorphed into a play button, or the play button into the combined lock-button fingerprint-sensor.
I for one am of the mind that the play button on my pomodoro is the play button on the VCR of my mind. And what price do I pay for having my mind locked behind such a taxing labor to liberate? Well-fed, sheltered, scanned and medicated?
Maybe we catastrophize that the dogear became the bookmark, the radio dial (being dialed-in) transmorphed into a play button, or the play button into the combined lock-button fingerprint-sensor.
Oh look, someone else with strange opinions about ADHD! I’m glad that I am able to receive treatment for it - yes, thanks to pharmaceuticals, which the author disdains, but also thanks to evidence-based cognitive behavior therapy and self knowledge. It looks like the author hasn’t done quite enough of the listening to others with ADHD that he pays
himself on the back for doing. My symptoms were interfering with my relationship with my spouse and keeping me from being an effective parent to our child. So instead of seeking treatment I should have just… stopped loving capitalism so much?
At no point does the author advocate for people to not seek treatment and support for ADHD.
The major point of the piece is that the hyper commodification of attention has created a techno-social order that does not accommodate the type of beings that we are. And when we fail to fulfill the demands of capitalism, that is pathologized as an individual disorder.
He also clarifies that the frameworks presented aren't all encompassing
> I’ve learned in listening to others tell their stories over the years that however thick or compelling the theoretical framework may be, it will not account for all of the nuances and idiosyncrasies of human experience.
His arguments are not about the individual, but about the systems that create and exacerbate psychological differences, pathologize those differences, and then commodify their "cures".
It doesn't matter if you love or hate capitalism. You're subjected to it regardless.
The major point of the piece is that the hyper commodification of attention has created a techno-social order that does not accommodate the type of beings that we are. And when we fail to fulfill the demands of capitalism, that is pathologized as an individual disorder.
He also clarifies that the frameworks presented aren't all encompassing
> I’ve learned in listening to others tell their stories over the years that however thick or compelling the theoretical framework may be, it will not account for all of the nuances and idiosyncrasies of human experience.
His arguments are not about the individual, but about the systems that create and exacerbate psychological differences, pathologize those differences, and then commodify their "cures".
It doesn't matter if you love or hate capitalism. You're subjected to it regardless.
It’s fun to think about adhd re:tech, but a less fun hypothesis is that it’s something biological not yet identified.
Gov should do an annual sample computer-scored interactive test on 1000 5-year-olds to see adhd truly is increasing irrespective of increasing diagnostic criteria.
Gov should do an annual sample computer-scored interactive test on 1000 5-year-olds to see adhd truly is increasing irrespective of increasing diagnostic criteria.
Some has already be done, in 2012 I think a team from harvard found biological markers which were identicals in patients suffering from autism/bipolar disorder/schyzophrenia and adhd and since adhd is a group of symptoms which can be caused by every "real" disorded listed above we found the biological something you mention.
Do you perhaps still have this study around? I searched but could not find it and It sounds quite interesting to me.
It was referenced in the book "ADHD does not exist" from Richard Saul M.D, I'll look for the book to find some links
So I grant this is definitely happening, but it begs the question of why in this environment 100% of people don’t suffer from ADHD? One reasonable answer, which I cannot prove beyond saying it matches my anecdotal experience, is that the ADHD problem is part nurture (information overload from a changing media environment that affects everyone) but also part nature (every brain is naturally a little bit different).
I have always had inattention—just ask my parents and childhood teachers. It had nothing to do with the Internet. No question the internet has posed extra challenges to my naturally weaker attention, in a similar way to how the invention of skyscrapers posed a challenge to people in wheelchairs. This analogy fails with the invention of elevators, for which the ADHD sufferer has no equivalent accommodation in our modern media world.
I wish I could invite non-ADHD-havers into my brain for a day to show them what it’s really like. Even now, as an adult with robust coping strategies, inattention afflicts me in all corners of my life. I struggle with the unexpected if it hits me when I’m focused on something, which leads to problems making friends or navigating stimulating social environments. I have trouble listening to friends or dates in busy bars or cafes, which is a related but distinct problem. When I’m trying to get into a flow at work I frequently get random, highly salient impulses to do other things that are important but aren’t the thing I need to do at that moment. Crucially I resist these urges, but they make achieving the flow I crave—and the success of my work—more difficult.
Even in current year, I think a lot of people (and certainly a lot of doctors!) don’t believe that any of this is real, and all I want from life is to take speed and scroll Reddit and Twitter all night. Let me assure you that this is not the case. If anything, the people I know IRL who have ADHD are among the most driven people out there. They almost have to be, because the minute they drop their guard their dreams start slipping away.