Trump's the great attention thief. It's time to focus, people
Forget crypto. Attention is currently the world’s greatest currency. American MSNBC host Chris Hayes describes it as the “worlds most endangered resource” in his new book, The Siren’s Call. “Our entire lives now,” he says, “is the wail of [a] siren going down the street.”
Social media, phones, flashing screens, beeps, posts, likes, reposts, alerts, messages, pings. Our devices capture then trap our brains like balls in pinball machines. And Donald Trump is working the flippers with effective, strategic force. Messages to group chats are interrupted by whiplash-inducing, genuinely shocking alerts: Trump wants to Buy Greenland, Trump Plans to Turn Gaza into the Riviera, US Withdraws from Human Rights Council, Elon Musk shuts down USAID. Mind-boggling seems too tepid a phrase.
So how do we pay attention without getting distracted, depressed or unfocused? For many people, let alone their kids, fighting distraction is a daily discipline and struggle. To place our attention where we want to place it. Maybe even just on one spot, one idea.
So, when Donald Trump uses his “shock and awe” strategy of making countless radical and eye-popping pronouncements, one after the other, it’s like being a puritan in a pack of porn stars, just not knowing exactly where to look.
More: https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/trump-s-the-great-attention-thief-it-s-time-to-focus-people-20250207-p5lae5.html
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