Notes on Attention in the Age of Feeds

Attention is not scarce.
Uninterrupted cognition is.

That distinction matters more than most productivity advice admits. Scarcity implies a natural limit. Interruption implies an external force. Feeds are not neutral mirrors of desire. They are engineered surfaces designed to fragment thought into monetizable intervals.

What we call “distraction” is usually just coerced context switching.

The Feed Is an Interface, Not a Medium

A feed is not content. It is an ordering function.

• It decides what comes next
• It decides what interrupts
• It decides what never appears

Two people can inhabit the same platform and experience entirely different cognitive climates.

Common Myths About Attention

1. Short-form content ruined attention spans
2. Multitasking is a skill
3. Productivity is a personal failing

Reality: these myths confuse environment with agency.

Comparative Environments

A Technical Aside

If you wanted to design a system that maximally disrupted thought:

function feed(user) {
  while (user.isAlive()) {
    injectNovelty()
    interruptContext()
    rewardDopamine()
  }
}