Attensity!: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement

Attensity! is a manifesto by The Friends of Attention—a group of writers, artists, and activists—that calls for collective resistance against the commodification of human attention. The book argues that major technology companies exploit our capacity for attention, reducing human experience to what can be quantified and sold, with consequences for democracy and individual selfhood. The authors contend that fighting back requires more than individual effort; it demands a movement of collective resistance. The book serves as a guide to joining this effort, featuring accounts of people from various professions—welders, nurses, poets, and surfers—who practice attentional resistance. It identifies sanctuaries such as theaters, museums, houses of worship, and dance parties as spaces where people can withdraw from this exploitation. Drawing on critical intellectual traditions and diverse cultural wisdom, the book frames attention activism as a way to counter what it calls "human fracking" and to reveal possibilities for human flourishing in response to present conditions.