Human Fracking? The Attention Liberation Movement vs. Big Tech

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

Episode Summary

Something feels wrong with our attention — and with reality itself.

In Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement, editors D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt argue that this crisis is not about individual willpower. It’s about a multi-trillion-dollar industry built to monetize human attention.

They call it “human fracking.”

“These phones are the final node in a… $7 to $14 trillion industry that’s all about maximizing the amount of time that we engage with these devices… capturing our attention and turning it into money. And we call that ‘human fracking.’” — Peter Schmidt

In this conversation, we explore how the commodification of attention reshapes nearly every aspect of our lives.

We talk about attention as relational and ethical — not just measurable. And we examine why reclaiming attention must be a collective political movement, not a private detox.

Then, we listen to an excerpt from our 2025 conversation with Cory Doctorow about his book Enshittifcation.

Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast.

Tags: Attention Liberation Movement, Attensity book, D. Graham Burnett, Peter Schmidt, Alyssa Loh, human fracking, attention economy, digital capitalism, social media harm, attention activism, Cory Doctorow enshittification, attention sanctuaries, Writers Voice podcast

You may also like: Cory Doctorow, Enshittification, Cory Doctorow, Picks and Shovels

Read The Transcript

Segment Summary The Crisis of Attention

• Why attention is “the key question of our moment”
• The metaphor of “human fracking”
• The internal environmental crisis of the mind

Attention as World-Making

• Attention as relational and ethical
• Simone Weil and the spiritual dimensions of attention
• How degraded attention makes reality feel unreal

Movement, Not Detox

• Converting private shame into collective anger
• Why willpower isn’t enough
• Parallels to environmental and civil rights movements

Sanctuaries of Attention

• Study, organizing, sanctuary
• Libraries, classrooms, coffee shops, Sabbath
• Reimagining civic institutions as attention infrastructure

A Positive Vision

• Designing technologies for human flourishing
• What a liberated attentional world might feel like for the next generation

Listen to or Read a Sample from the book

Read the Poem: St. Francis and the Sow