Your Attention Didn’t Collapse. It Was Stolen.

Apr 13, 2022

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If you’ve noticed that your attention span feels nonexistent, you’re certainly not alone. A recent Guardian piece, Your Attention Didn’t Collapse. It Was Stolen., paints a grim picture of society’s frightening struggle to focus. In a world where technology and social media continue to invade our lives, there’s always an algorithm ready to suck us in. The attention suck is especially hard to escape when not having an iPhone can sometimes mean not having a social life.

But what role do creators have in the attention crisis taking over our lives? After all, creators produce some of the content that’s keeping us glued to our phones. And has the collective attention span decline impacted creators' ability to be productive themselves?

In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel discuss how creators can create without sucking their audience into an attention-stealing trap, how consumers and creators alike can actively combat the attention span decline, and the link between stress, happiness, and your ability to focus on the work you love.

Key Takeaways

[01:02] - Have you heard?
- [01:21] - Elon Musk bought a lot of Twitter shares and will be getting a seat on Twitter’s board.
- [02:17] - Twitter is working on an edit button.
- [06:42] - BeReal is an app that encourages users to share their real life on social media versus a staged highlight reel.
[08:43] - Today’s main topic: Your Attention Didn’t Collapse. It Was Stolen.
- [10:50] - The forces consuming our attention are so powerful that sometimes the only solution is to physically remove the temptation.
- [14:38] - Creators should focus on serving valuable content that someone briefly focuses on versus stealing their attention away with no underlying purpose other than capital gain.
- [17:15] - There’s also a social expectation to be constantly available and engaged via our phones.
- [20:28] - Fight against the attention deficit by focusing on finding your flow state. To find your flow, focus on achieving a meaningful goal.
- [22:28] - Unfortunately, individuals swearing off distracting apps won’t address the systemic issue. Creators have a larger impact in making distraction meaningful.
- [24:36] - To achieve that flow state, you also have to be intentional with the content you’re surrounding yourself with when you’re creating.
- [26:03] - Find a hobby that forces you to disconnect.
- [27:01] - We as a society need to be intentional with how we disconnect.
- [28:31] - Reducing stress also improves your attention.
- [30:02] - As individuals, we have to set anti-distraction boundaries and windows of focus for ourselves that hold us accountable.
[31:40] - Submit a listener shoutout!
[34:54] - A sneak peek at next week’s episode.

Quotes

[14:21] - “We as creators need to have downtime in order to produce our greatest work. And we as creators also need to steal the attention of people in order to build and make our business grow and grow our audience. But we also can’t be a product of it as well.” @haleyjani

[14:55] - “There’s a difference between stealing and borrowing. And I would hope that what I at least am aiming to do with my content is borrowing people’s attention. Where it’s kind of like, ‘watch me now, watch how I’m doing this design thing and how I’m handling this process’, and then you’re going to be better equipped to go and do it yourself when you’re giving that your full focus.” ~ @charliprangley

[25:35] - “You have to be deliberate about what you surround yourself with when you’re engaging in something. So when you’re going to create a new piece of content or when you are going to do something that’s like a hobby for you or that you really enjoy, try to set yourself up to have as few distractions as possible.” ~ @miguelp.img

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