How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

How to do Nothing differs from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often in that it is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you view yourself in the  world. 

 

Artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can take a step back from a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity,  with this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy to win back our lives.

 

Odell views our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have and says that we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of our happiness and progress.