For a week, I tried to pay attention to my attention, something that Thoreau would probably say I should have been doing all along. I did not go to the woods, but I did go to class, The Lamron office, WGSU 89.3, sorority meetings, and hung out with my friends. I carried my phone and started noticing how often my attention was not really mine.
Below is what I learned about what “I agreed to attend to,” and what was forced on me.
What I tracked: I kept a running log in a Markdown file on my laptop and added quick notes on my phone. I focused on:
- Invited attention: things I chose to focus on
- Uninvited attention: notifications, ads, algorithmic pulls, and digital interruptions
- Moments of regained autonomy: when I resisted or redirected my attention
A week of attention: What I actually noticed Thoreau warned that “our inventions are won’t to be be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things.” My pretty toys were:
- GroupMe blowing up during class (sorority, Lamron, radio, etc.)
- ESPN alerts I did not ask for
- Brightspace notifications that felt urgent (even though they were not)
- Instagram/Snapchat messages that pulled me in for “just a second”
- Apple News pushing stories I did care not about I counted: on Tuesday alone, I got 63 notifications before 3 PM None of them were emergencies. All of them demanded a tiny slice of my mind.
The algorithm knows I am a Sports Editor/into sports Scrolling “for five minutes” turned into:
- 20 minutes on Twitter/X reading up on trades and game highlights
- 15 minutes on TikTok watching mor highlights and podcasts
- 10 minutes on Instagram reels of athletes/sports that I do not even follow I did not choose these videos, they chose me.
Ads that followed me like mosquitoes on a muggy summer night I looked up one pair of jeans on Monday. For the rest of the week:
- Instagram: ads
- Google: ads
- TikTok: ads
- Even ESPN: ads It felt like the digital version of Thoreau’s “brain rot,” not because the jeans were evil, but because the repetition made my thoughts feel less like mine.
The moments I actually chose my attention These were fewer than I expected:
- Editing a Lamron article and getting into a flow
- Running a WGSU sports segment and forgetting about my phone
- Reading for my anthropology class without checking anything
- Talking with friends at dinner and realizing that I had not looked at my phone in an hour These moments felt like what William James meant when he said, “My experience is what I agree to attend to.” They actually felt like MY life.
How my attention was compromised
- Constant micro-interruptions
Even when I ignored notifications, they still registered.
- A buzz, a banner, a preview = a thought Thoreau wrote that the mind can be “macadamized”, broken into fragments. That is exactly what it felt like.
- The illusion of choice I thought I was choosing to scroll. However, the more I tracked my attention, the more I realized that I am not choosing the content, the timing, or the duration. The platforms were choosing for me.
- The loss of mental quietness Thoreau wanted us to “read the Eternities.” I was reading: headlines, hot takes, ads, notifications, etc. None of them were eternal, and most were not even important.
Did tracking my attention change anything? Honestly? a little, but not dramatically. I did not turn into a digital monk, I did not delete my apps, and I did not turn off my notifications. But I did start:
- Putting my phone in my bag during meetings and class
- Turning off nonessential alerts
- Catching myself when I am being pulled instead of choosing The biggest change is awareness. I can now feel the difference between the attention I give and the attention that is taken from me. That distinction alone feels like a small reclaiming of autonomy.
Living my life, or letting it be lived for me? Thoreau believed that attention shapes perception. William James believed it shapes experience. Tim Wu believes it shapes freedom. After a week of watching my own attention, I believe all three are right. My digital environment constantly tries to live life for me, to decide what I see, what I think about, and how long I think about it. Noticing that process gave me a little more control. Not perfect control, but enough to feel like I am choosing my life a bit more deliberately. Even if I still check Instagram too much!