Attensity!

It is all so obvious that it scarcely bears elaboration: We are living under conditions that are contrary to basic wellness—of ourselves, our communities, and our planet. We, too, awaken our screens

Ref. 40E6-A

Consider: Over the past ten years, suicide attempts and feelings of persistent hopelessness among high school students have increased by a staggering 40 percent. Girls are at greater risk—one in ten American female teens actually attempted self-destruction in 2024, and studies suggest that nearly a third experienced suicidal ideation. Never before have young people found themselves to be so disconnected from the things that make life worthwhile. We are confronting a pandemic of loneliness, and an unprecedented spike in “deaths of despair.”

Ref. E6FD-B

But among the catastrophes of our present moment is that the very means by which these disasters are brought to our awareness—twenty-four-hour news, the ping of cascading notifications, the endless scroll—act not as a bridge into the world, but as the actual mechanisms of further isolation and distance. The more urgent our collective problems become, the less real they seem to be.

Ref. 3B3A-C

How is this possible? How have we been separated from each other and the world—and even from ourselves—at the absolute historical apex of global communicative interconnection? The answer, we believe, is surprisingly simple: The actual stuff of all connection—the true way we are present to being, beings, and everything else—is neither a network nor a device. It isn’t outrage, or, for that matter, hope. It isn’t blood, sweat, or tears, either. It is attention.

Ref. A9A6-D