Algorithmic attention extraction erodes cognition and civic engagement: systemic tech design prioritizes profit over public good
Original framing: “Digital platforms are making it more difficult to focus, read and even engage in democracy” — Phys.org
Neuroscience confirms that dopamine-driven feedback loops (e.g., infinite scroll) hijack prefrontal cortex functions, reducing working memory and impulse control. Studies on 'continuous partial attention' show that multitasking reduces comprehension by 40% compared to single-tasking. Yet tech companies suppress this research while funding 'nudging' techniques to exploit cognitive biases, creating a feedback loop of self-reinforcing harm.
The 'brain rot' phenomenon is not a bug but a feature of an attention economy where cognitive labor is extracted for profit, a logic traceable from 19th-century advertising to today's algorithmic feeds.
Indigenous epistemologies and Buddhist mindfulness practices reveal this as a crisis of relationality, not just cognition, while neuroscience confirms the structural mechanisms of harm. The complicity of academia—funded by tech oligarchs—mirrors historical patterns of epistemicide, where marginalized voices are erased to serve extractive systems. Solutions must therefore reembed technology in democratic governance, Indigenous stewardship, and neuroethical accountability, lest we normalize a future where democracy itself is a 'feature' to be optimized. The trickster's laughter lies in how platforms sell us 'connection' while selling our attention to the highest bidder—a cycle broken only by collective refusal to be the product.