Welcome to Litsy!

This was a very good book! It unpacks the monetization and colonization of our attention, how prone we are becoming to distraction, the difference between attention and connection, how news is spread, and more. I would highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I found this more insightful than I expected. It was not individual strategies for reducing time online or scrolling but instead went into more societal trends and pressures related to monetized attention. He makes some interesting points and I learned a few things.

Really interesting! This nonfiction book from the MSNBC journalist is a spot on treatise on attention, politics, media, and human connection. Great on audio, read by the author. This one made me think!

Can't say that I completely understood everything Lanier said, but I did get the main message: social media is ruining the world and we are its slaves. Not Litsy.

I'm not sure if this short book was compelling on its own or just along with my other reading/experiences, but it definitely struck a chord for me. A Silicon Valley insider, Lanier makes a distinction between social media that uses what he terms BUMMER algorithms to target and manipulate users and other, less insidious types of online interaction. I don't like his Solitary/Pack terminology, but aside from that, it's a very convincing read.

"What if listening to an inner voice or heeding a passion for ethics or beauty were to lead to more important work in the long term, even if it measured as less successful in the moment? What if deeply reaching a small number of people matters more than reaching everybody with nothing?"

As one whose passion for blogging diminished with the push to focus on SEO and who's feeling odd about using IG to promote voiceover work, this quote resonates.

44/100 I've always enjoyed Chris Hayes' TV show, and this book is very relevant to today's information overload society. Our attention is divided by many sources fighting for our views, twits, posts and likes. As readers, we all know the struggle to maintain our attention, when the cellphone, the internet, and the TV is trying to lure away our attention. Donald Trump is the first president of the "Attention Age", someone pathetically unqualified⬇️

I like it when life syncs up with what I'm reading. Yesterday a storm knocked out the power from 7pm until 10am this morning. No TV, no wi-fi, no internet, and once my phone ran down, no ebooks or audiobooks. No distractions at all, just the printed book to read. Is there something wrong with me when I say that I found no distractions very distracting? I tried to concentration on the book, but I found my mind wandering. It's not the book's ⬇️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 #bookclub

"We lie on our backs on the trampoline, drawn into the center by each other's weight. The universe stretches wide above us, framed by a ring around us."

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@ShyBookOwl