By JOSÉ COSTA JUNIOR*

Cognitive freedom in times of attention economy

1.

As widely reported, Oxford University Press, publisher of the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary, he chose "brain rot” (“brain rot”) as the word of the year for 2024. The term refers to the effects of digital overload of superficial and trivial content on our brains. Constant exposure to short videos, memes, clippings and reactions, among other content on digital social interaction networks, occurs in parallel with increased difficulties in concentration, attention and memorization – which would be an indication of the “rot” described.

The term reflects concerns and evidence gathered by many researchers and users. The word selection process involved research in the publisher's database and an online survey. According to the institution, searches for the term grew by 230% throughout 2024, which demonstrates some concern on the part of those online. However, the discussion also involves deeper themes and concepts, which require some analysis within the scope of infoethics – an area of ​​study that addresses the humanity-technology symbiosis, its assumptions and consequences.

Firstly, the vocabulary that involves intense connection on social networks is increasingly vast: influencers, followers, artificial intelligence, viralization, applications, algorithmic management, suggestions, likes, reactions, notifications, forwarding, mentoring, trends, among other common expressions today. In addition to being terms linked to the digital experience, this broad lexicon is also linked to the expected impacts on our subjectivities, attention and thoughts.

What does an influencer want if not to influence our choices and decisions? Doesn't a notification seek to draw our attention to a message or data that reaches us through an application? To follow trends (or trends) does not incite us to have a certain action or behavior? It is possible to continue with this exposition of questions that exemplify the situation, but the basic point is that, in the current circumstances of our interactions with socially disruptive technologies, our thoughts, subjectivities and attention are constantly challenged by such means, with the aim of garnering resources and impact on our hearts and minds.

2.

This mobilization is the result of the action of the conglomerate of corporations that operate in our time of attention economy. The calls big techs develop their persuasive technologies, whose main purpose is to develop ways of capturing attention and producing stimuli to our subjectivity, with the simple objective of making a profit. While in the distant 20th century propaganda strategies also had such elements as raw material, the persuasive technologies of the digital world in the time of the attention economy operate with greater intensity and with constantly available means.

We thus have a scenario of “surveillance capitalism” (Zuboff, 2019), in which the constant monitoring of our digital trails guarantees income for corporations and governments, based on a “data colonialism” (Couldry, 2019), in which our information, data and subjectivities are constantly exploited without us having much control over it. Another description goes literally deeper and points to this scenario as a form of “limbic capitalism” (Courtwright, 2019), in which our deepest reactions, emotions and sensations are also stimulated, captured and quantified from our experiences in the digital world.

However, there is a tension surrounding this context. Some of the assumptions of Modernity that shaped the world we live in are challenged in such scenarios and descriptions. The modern subject, from whom autonomy, freedom, sovereignty and reason were expected to freely deliberate on the world around him, finds his subjectivity constantly impacted – along with his autonomy, freedom and sovereignty. If what I see, what I feel, what I desire and what I choose are the result of external influences, who thinks for me? This has social, political and economic consequences, as well as for the construction of our worldviews.

The rich vocabulary described at the beginning makes this case clear. Some challenges had already been posed to the alleged characteristics of the modern subject in theorizing about humanity in the 20th century, but in the early decades of the 21st century the challenge seems to be greater. With so many possibilities of influence from the expansion of the reach of persuasive technologies and their impact on our subjectivity, attention and rationality, it is always possible to ask how our conceptions and conclusions about the world are formed. And also about how free our attention is in circumstances in which stimuli are constant and almost irresistible. 

What we commonly call attention is the ability to focus on a portion of the information stream coming from our senses. We focus our gaze on a small part of the world around us, while the rest of the sensory field plays a secondary role. In a short early 1918st-century article on the philosophy of mind, entitled “Zombies Can’t Concentrate,” the British philosopher Mary Midgley (2018–XNUMX) argued that much of our activity over time is “drastically shaped by effort and therefore by attention.”

This cognitive effort that involves attention is part of our daily lives in the most common circumstances. Going to the bathroom and properly lifting the toilet lid, choosing the right key on the keychain to open the door, assessing the weather conditions before leaving the house are examples of activities that involve some cognitive effort and attention.

If we don’t pay attention properly, we can fail. It’s not uncommon for distractions, multitasking situations, attentional impacts, and other unconscious elements to impact us, but considering Midgley’s analysis, it’s clear that “conscious attention is a causal factor in the world, as well recognized as poisoning, rain, or measles.” It is “a common natural phenomenon” that constantly interacts with our cognitive processes, shaping our worldviews and deliberations in the many circumstances of our lives.

3.

However, in a world with so many stimuli and possibilities for distraction, our ability to pay attention can diminish or be directed, impacting thoughts and conceptions of reality. The centrality of persuasive technologies in contemporary political disputes is an example of this state of affairs. Intense and heated debates, constant controversies and attacks, video clippings published on social media capture attention and mobilize varied emotions, among other approaches. Such content is promoted in the context of the attention economy, garnering results for those who promote it.

We thus have reactions of indignation or approval, sharing of support or revolt, and comments and viralizations that are also examples of how persuasive technologies end up mobilizing our attention, promoting more and more “engagement” on the part of “users”. And as Mary Midgley points out, our attention is a decisive element in what makes us, a causal factor in the world that produces actions and reactions, impacting who we are and what we think.

All of these elements are directly linked to our cognition. Impacted by diverse stimuli and powerful disruptive and persuasive technologies, it becomes relevant to worry about the impacts on our cognitive freedom. This freedom of cognition, attention and thought processes can now be impacted by mechanical means that permeate our subjectivities and are opaque to us. According to the analysis of American researcher Nita Farahany, it has never been so important to consider cognitive freedom, since large corporations have technological resources to influence and impact our consciousness in a way that has never been observed before.

In his view, anyone who values ​​their ability to have private thoughts and reflections in an “inner world”, without much interference from technological rhythms, should be concerned with cognitive freedom. It is not about creating prohibitions linked to digital practices, but we find regulations, controls and debates about the limits of technologies that involve our cognition. In his 2023 book, entitled The Battle for Your, Farahany argues that intrusions into our minds through technology are already a reality and we need to establish protections and rights on the subject.

Dystopian scenarios such as mind reading and stimulation of thoughts and actions are still distant, but the extensive neuroscientific and psychological research developed for big techs is already producing results – in the most diverse areas of politics, economics, culture, etc. The algorithmic mediations of experience, which guarantee the functioning of the attention economy, create worrying scenarios. Today's polarized societies and the great potential for misinformation are reflections of this situation.

In this sense, cognitive freedom is the freedom to have some sovereign control over one’s own thoughts and consciousness, a right to self-determination over our brains and our mental experiences. Thus, any external or internal manipulation would be open to discussion and questioning. In this “battle for our brains,” Farahany recognizes the potential of large corporations, which exploit what is most human in us, to avoid even more critical scenarios. In times of “brain rot,” it is important that we fight this battle. After all, only zombies are incapable of paying attention to their own condition, as the attentive Mary Midgley warned us.

*Jose Costa Junior Professor of Philosophy and Social Sciences at IFMG –Campus Ponte Nova.

References

COULDRY, Nick; MEJIAS, Ulises. The costs of connection: How data are colonizing human life and appropriating it for capitalism 2019.

COURTWRIGHT, David. The age of addiction: How bad habits became big business. HarvardUniversityPress, 2019.

FARAHANY, Nita. The battle for your brain: Defending the right to think freely in the age of neurotechnology. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2023.

MIDGLEY, Mary. “Zombies Can't Concentrate” In: Philosophy Now. Number 44, February 2004.

ZUBOFF, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. London: Profile Books, 2019.

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