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Are We Being Fracked?

You might worry—I certainly do—about those notices you get on your phone telling you how many hours you stare at that screen every day.

Maybe your neck and shoulders ache from tilting your head toward the phone while you’re sitting at your desk, lying in bed, or even walking down the street.

Even when you’re with your kids or your partner or your friends, you find yourself lost in cyberspace instead of having a conversation.

If any of that rings true, you might consider a small but growing movement toward phone freedom.

This is about using attention with intention.

Groups of young people are getting together in big cities around the world and putting their phones in a box so they can (imagine it!) talk to each other. Play games. Read books. Anything but focusing on their phones.

Some of those gatherings include organized activities. For instance, everyone stares at their phones for a couple of minutes. Then they put them down and focus on their empty palms. And finally, they train their gaze on their neighbor’s phone-free hands.

They also introduce themselves, the way people might at a self-help meeting. “I’m Catherine and I’m addicted to email and streaming.”

It’s all about the importance of paying attention to real life instead of those seductive screens.

Welcome to the Attention Liberation Movement

One proponent? Stand-up comedian Dan Fox, host of phone-free get-togethers in New York. He also works in marketing for Light Phone. Which sounds sort of like the anti-iPhone. The Light Phone makers say they want their device to be used as little as possible. To that end, they offer no email, no browser, no social media. Just talking and listening.

Fox told the AP the phones most of us use have “become more insidious and more extractive, exploitative”. He says activists want to “start a revolution.”

Some of them begin by ditching their smart phones for what are often called “dumb phones.”

They’re also reading Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement. Author D. Graham Burnett says it’s time to stop the corporate harvesting of our attention. He calls it “human fracking”—the efforts by those companies to extract that most precious resource, our attention.

As attention spans get shorter, of course, those companies work harder to capture what they think of as mindshare. Graham says we need to set aside the screens so we can rewild our attention and go back to a fuller relationship with the world.

This is bigger than a digital detox.

You may have tried this sort of thing yourself …

You leave your phone outside your bedroom to break the habit of scrolling before you’re even out of bed.

You set a timer and focus on, say, reading a book—and you don’t look at your phone until you hear that ding.

You use a tool like Screen Time to set a limit on your apps.

That’s all well and good. And, this Attention Liberation Movement wants us to take it farther. It goes beyond unplugging for an evening or even a weekend to recharge.

Rewilding your attention means you reclaim control over your attention even though the fracking world is designed to capture and keep it.

I’m hooked on my phone, for sure.

And yet, I see the value of liberating my attention. It’s not just about escape. This is about ownership.

Attention liberation means we decide what deserves our focus. We decide when we engage. We decide when we’re done with that engaging.

Because here’s the truth a person could miss: If you don’t control your attention, you don’t control your message. And if you don’t control your message… you don’t make the impact you’re here to make.

Fewer words. Sharper point. Real influence.

That doesn’t come from just unplugging for a weekend to relax and reboot.

It comes from refusing to be played.

Of course, it also comes from having a powerful message …

And delivering that message with power to match. It’s more important than ever. And you know who can give you a boost if you need it. It might just be time to get in touch.