Rewilding your attention

Clive Thompson's post, Rewilding your attention, had me nodding along sagely. Thompson's premise is that to find the really interesting stuff on the internet, you need to step back from what your preferred platforms' algorithms suggest, and follow your own quirky interests. This is obviously a little harder than following algorithm suggestions, but like Thompson, I think the effort is worth it.

Instead of crowding your attention with what's already going viral on the intertubes, focus on the weird stuff. Hunt down the idiosyncratic posts and videos that people are publishing, oftentimes to tiny and niche audiences. It's decidedly unviral culture — but it's more likely to plant in your mind the seed of a rare, new idea.

RSS feeds

Thompson goes on to suggest that RSS feeds are one way to rewild your attention. I couldn't agree more. This is the best way to bring all the disparate websites you follow in one place. So much better than an algorithm. I have my own collection of RSS feeds that I've built up over time and I couldn't be without them. There's a lot to learn from the blogosphere, if you choose well. At the very least, you are likely to find something that will make you feel less alone.

Prospecting

Thompson also spends an hour or two "prospecting - I pick a subject almost at random, then check to see if there's a hobbyist or interest-group discussion-board devoted to it."

I too enjoy "prospecting", especially for blogs. But I admit it's not easy fishing them out of an unfathomably vast and deep internet ocean. Which is why I appreciate the work that Manuel Moreale is doing with his People and Blogs project, and Herman with the Bear discovery feed, to name but two. They make it easier to discover new blogs.

I have a blogroll, in case it helps you find someone who piques your interest. If you don't already, you should have one too.

Books

In addition to the foregoing, my recommendation is to get offline and spend some focused attention reading books. A good book habit is essential, if you want to rewild your imagination. As scholar Timothy Snyder says in On Tyranny1, "Staring at screens is perhaps unavoidable, but the two-dimensional world makes little sense unless we can draw upon a mental armory that we have developed somewhere else." To make sense of what is going on, one needs a larger framework, with more concepts. Books will give you that.

Reading books also gifts you a wider vocabulary, so that you have your own words to draw from instead of parroting trite internet phrases or political propaganda.

Good attention makes a good life

As Adam Phillips observes in Attention Seeking, "Attention nourishes us; distraction depletes us. Attention redeems the time. It makes it feel worth living, and living out. Good attention makes a good life."2

Rewilding your attention is an act of resistance against capitalism, indifferent algorithms and political tyranny. It will enrich your imagination, help you connect the dots and make space for a world of wider possibilities.

Footnotes

1. Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Lesson 9: Be Kind to our language.

2. Adam Phillips, Attention Seeking, (p. 88), Penguin Books Ltd, Kindle Edition.

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