The War On Attention

There are many wars taking place in our world. They end in some places, only to restart in others. Yet they scarcely ever cease. I have never believed that wars serve any purpose. They are, quite plainly, absurd and unnecessary. Wars are the result of manipulation, where our precious lives are wasted for nothing under the guise of ornate ideological coverings. And if we pay close attention, we see that no one who goes to war, or participates in it, gains anything. They only lose.

What I wish to speak of today is a war that goes beyond the physical battles fought with weapons on battlefields. Our world is constantly inside a war. And this war is multi-layered, encompassing even the physical conflicts we know. This is the war being fought for our attention.

By 202X, the internet has transformed into a system that literally exploits spiritual energy. No matter how many people complain about it, no one can easily let go. This reveals just how dangerously vast the situation has become. We are facing a state of dopamine overload. It is on everyone’s lips. Yet no one is taking a step against it. How many minutes can you last without looking at phones or screens? Asking this question in our time is truly painful. How did they make us swallow the habit of scrolling for minutes, for almost nothing—perhaps for a funny video that lasts a minute, or for so-called informative content?

But I do not blame anyone. This was something planned long ago, with known effects. Perhaps it is older than we think. As old as propaganda, as old as visual posters and advertisements. Giant media platforms like Instagram and X have integrated this diabolically.

Some might argue that we should not demonize the internet and that it can be used beneficially if handled correctly. I agree, but the strings will never be in our hands. The algorithms that built these media were never for our benefit. They were specifically designed to manage us through fear. And yet, we continue to consume them. Why?

Twenty years ago, when the internet was just becoming widespread and I was still a child, I couldn't stay away from the computer. When my elders scolded me to go out and get some air, I would plug my ears. And now, I am speaking just like them. What is the essence of this comedy? A generation of impatient, uncontrolled adults who cannot communicate with children; youths with their noses in the air; the cruelty of time; and human stubbornness at every age. It is hard for a person to understand and believe something until they experience it themselves. Those who control us know this very well. By the time a generation realizes the harms of what came before, they have aged and become adults. Once adult, they find themselves undeveloped, having wasted their time on all those attention-grabbing distractions. Their bond with the new generation is severed. They cannot pass on what they learned. And so, the new generation falls into the same trap and consumes the poison anew. The cycle continues. The severing of our bond with our ancestors is a tragic event for this reason. But the problem at the center has always been our lack of communication, empathy, and understanding.

And as I said, they are weaving this thread by thread. This did not start with Facebook or the New York Times. Current social media is the pinnacle of this massive control system we see.

They have emptied everything inside, successfully narrowing our attention spans. Most of us have reached a point of incapacity to read and understand anything long. We have become unable to last 15 minutes without getting bored. And yes, perhaps you, the reader of this text, are not like that. Maybe you are part of the group that has not fallen into that trap. But by the nature of society, the 20% to 50% segment is in a position where they can be easily hypnotized. This is less a weakness and more a natural structure. And some are exploiting this structure exactly in this way. And as we feed this system, we are dragging other people into it more deeply. Because we are increasing their popularity. They go wherever there is a crowd. Do you understand what I mean?

Our situation is never hopeless. Those who show us that we are hopeless are the individuals who try to trigger our fears for a handful of attention, trying to profit from it.

I believe the solution must begin with paying attention to what you consume. In a war for attention, first recognize your most powerful capability: Your attention! Wherever your attention flows, your energy flows there too.

After leaving a class, does your mind not keep turning over the things discussed? Or after a night spent with friends, is your mind still turning over the conversations from that evening? Do you not sometimes even dream about it? The things we consume have a much larger impact on the mind than appears. What you perceive and what you do literally change your brain. You are what you consume!

They have accustomed us so much to ready-made things that we have forgotten the magic of producing things. And in the same way, they have made us so needy for attention that we lost the meaning of creation. We turned it into a tool for grabbing attention. But I can guarantee you this: Your happiness is definitely not in the next GTA game or the next Marvel movie. The cure for your distress is not in the next Netflix series you will watch!

With mass production, you can never reach substantial content. So, what is killed in the end by all this? Our imagination.

We could write much more like this, couldn't we? When I write it myself, it ultimately feels like an empty rebellion. After all, they have emptied the porcelain of everything and stripped us of our magical ability. And they have left us ashamed in their own hollowed-out, so-called magical worlds and arts. We have a saying in our region: "Where there is too much, there is shit." Exactly like that. Especially in 202X.

Pay care to what you consume, regain your attention. That is your magical ability!**