Attention Parasites
There is a monster, not of flesh and blood, but of algorithms, addiction and cruel incentives, feeding on the neurochemical impulses of human attention like a slot machine designed by sociopathic ideologues. It’s minions are the digital carnies running a rigged game at a grotesque carnival of human misery. They’ve discovered that outrage is the new opium, and they’re dealing it by the gig to anyone with an internet connection.
Human attention is the commodity. It must be captured by any means to keep eyeballs on the ads so these hustlers and their sponsors can profit. Everybody wins, except you, who descends ever deeper into madness.
- Sense making is too hard to produce and too boring
- Lies are cheap and entertaining
- Anger is more engaging than joy
- Fear pays better than courage
This is the playbook. And now, we’re drowning in…
- Righteous indignation
- Half-truths
- Complete fabrications
- Anxiety
- Delusion
And here’s where it gets really twisted: everyone thinks they’re the protagonist in this horror show. “Not me,” they’ll insist, “I’ve cracked the code. You see, I’m in these groups online and I’ve got the inside scoop. My information sources are pure.”
I’ve got bad news for you, bub. Everyone’s been indoctrinated into some group with the absolute moral high ground and monopoly on truth. You’re in an algorithmically curated echo chamber designed specifically for your psychological profile, fueled by greedy grifters, Big Tech profiteering, and human frailty. Sorry about that.
But, it’s happened to all of us.
There are many bad actors here. Attention Parasites with incurving hooks digging to our soft, vulnerable brain matter, ever feeding on what little sense of well being we have left. But we too are complicit.
We’ve created a system that rewards the worst impulses of human nature. Manufactured outrage and dubious information makes content creators and media platforms richer. Moments of authentic human connection are sacrificed to a digital rage machine, ground up and spit up to sell yet more ad space.
And the hideous irony of it all?
We’re paying them to destroy us. Every video watched, Every ad viewed, every subscription purchased, every premium account activated, every weird green health drink sold, is another vote for chaos, another investment in the systematic dismantling of our sense of shared reality.
Welcome to the freak show, folks. The cost of admission is your sanity. So pay up or else.
Or else what? How about…
Start here:
- Delete - the apps that feed on your outrage
- Question your certainty - Especially when you feel most right about something
- Get real - Real world, real people, real problems
- Follow the money - back to its source and see who’s getting rich off your misery.
- Be informed - but don’t let anyone tell you how to feel
- Think in decades, not news cycles - What actually matters in the long run?
By the way, we’re all in this together. Don’t forget that. It might be the most important part of all this.
AM