Attention is The New Oil, This is How to Control Yours

Your attention is your most valuable asset, and yet your attention is no longer yours. It has been hijacked. Engineers have designed technology, social media, and junk food to kidnap your attention. We need to take back control. We need to slow down and remove distractions. To achieve anything great in life, you must be conscious and deliberate with your actions. You must be mindful and aware. Or, to put in words more beautiful than my own:

‘To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders’ Lao Tzu

The necessary first step is to develop awareness. Develop awareness so that you can control your attention. The technological age doesn’t make this easy. Social media gurus and pseudoscientists will have you believe you need a dopamine detox, but that just isn’t true. The answer is found within. Once you find your answer, you’ll free up your mind to work at its fullest potential, to focus on what matters to you, and to take action towards your purpose.

The world is full of distractions. If you live without awareness, you will live through these distractions. That’s why the premise of a dopamine detox is so compelling. The scientific literature argues otherwise¹. Instead, it hints at a fundamental truth: reshaping your mind and finding your awareness is the key to choosing your relationship with the world around you.

Technology Addiction & Dopamine Hijacking

Technology addiction is a growing problem. New classifications of psychological and psychiatric disorders have been invented just to keep up with the effects. These addictions share similarities with substance use disorders and other behavioural addictions² ³. Brain scans even show this to be true. Addiction to our devices affects key areas of emotion, attention, and decision-making⁴.

It’s important to make clear—this is by design. Tech CEO’s have been quoted talking about gamification, about engineering designed to hijack the dopaminergic system and leave users craving more⁵. And so, now we pick up the pieces.

MrBeast, famous for being the most subscribed YouTuber, said attention is the most valuable commodity⁶. I would go as far as saying attention is the new oil. It is a scarce and valuable resource for which many compete. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and all social media companies profit from gaining and retaining your attention. They do this in exchange for revenue in the form of advertising⁷.

How do they do this? There are many tricks. Infinite scrolling, pull-to-refresh, colourful and animated features, all designed to mimic the casino tactics that boost dopamine⁸. Boosting dopamine to keep you wanting more…after all, dopamine is known as the molecule of more⁹.

Processed Food & Overstimulation

It’s not just our technology, though. Manufacturers pack modern processed foods with sugar and fats. These highly processed foods lead to dopamine release, endorphin release and lead to addictive behaviours¹⁰. It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that dopamine and endorphins are akin to our own natural supply of cocaine and heroin.

Now, this process of constant overstimulation is dangerous. It is dangerous in the form of always wanting more. Of always needing more. Not only is dopamine the molecule of more, leaving us with the drive to source more, but the brain becomes desensitised¹¹. Perhaps the best comparable example is nicotine, from smoking, which leads to desensitisation followed by withdrawal when the user attempts to quit ¹².

Repeated consumption of dopamine-triggering activities or foods leads to a decrease in the number of receptors for dopamine in the brain¹³. This is called receptor downregulation. It leads to needing more stimulation to achieve the same level of response, also known as tolerance. Now, if you remove the dopamine-stimulating events from a brain that is used to many high-stimulating events, you get withdrawal. What I have just described is a fundamental loop of addiction¹⁴.

The Dopamine Detox Fallacy

Dopamine detox guides and videos are all over the internet. Wikipedia-educated experts claim it is the only way to overcome your technology-induced addiction. This is not true¹⁵.

A dopamine detox implies the removal of all dopamine-stimulating inputs. A cold-turkey or replacement technique. Firstly, this is both impossible and impractical¹⁶. Secondly, this will increase your sensitivity to dopamine. If you lack awareness, you will then replace your previous habits with new habits not aligned with your goals¹⁷.

The more optimal route is training your mind and your awareness. Improvements in self-awareness lead to a natural progression in your ability to choose¹⁸. This translates to regaining control of your attention, enabling you to re-align your habits with behaviours consistent with your goals.

Ultimately, the aims of these two routes remain the same: reducing impulsive, compulsive, and subconscious behaviours that are rewarded with dopamine release; to eliminate reliance on devices, social media consumption, and high-sugar and high-fat foods. Successfully eliminating these lifestyle factors will improve your mental health, sleep quality, relationships, productivity, stress and anxiety levels. But if you do so blindly, you may find that you replace one bad habit with a new one.

Worshipping The Mind

Consciously developing and improving our relationship with ourselves is a lifelong endeavour. It is a fundamental part of having a growth mindset. This doesn’t have to be a spiritual or religious practice. In fact, as the scientific evidence of mindfulness has grown, so have the non-religious and non-spiritual approaches to meditation (The HeartMath Solution etc.).

Brain imaging studies show that meditation can change the brain. Structures related to self-awareness, memory, learning and emotional regulation develop with regular meditation¹⁹. Psychological professionals even use mindfulness in techniques such as CBT and reframing to change perspective²⁰. So, we know there is a scientific basis for reshaping our mind through conscious and intentional effort, and the optimal tool for this is meditation.

Top-down control is the fancy way scientists talk about controlling your thoughts and your actions with conscious control²¹. Bottom-up control is the converse, this is allowing your subconscious to direct your thoughts and behaviours. And so, to act with mindfulness and awareness, we must improve our top-down control.

So, how can we worship the mind in the most approachable, impartial and beneficial way possible? Well, this is where I would advocate for a personalised, pan-approach. There are many meditation techniques, each with different aims, so below you’ll find links to tools to help you reclaim control of your attention.

TLDR;

Attention is the most valuable asset in the modern world. To reclaim your attention is to harness your full potential. Learn to cultivate awareness and mindfulness against the distractions of technology and processed foods. Using meditation, you can create greater focus and purpose—take control and transform your life!

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References

[NB. All images created using MidJourney]

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