First published 2025
Technology companies have fundamentally altered human consciousness by turning our attention into a commodity they extract and sell. Chris Hayes, the New York Times bestselling author and MSNBC host, argues that we face an epochal shift comparable to the industrial transformation of labor in the 1800s. Tech firms dismantled the boundary between public and private life in roughly ten years. Digital sirens now sound constantly in our homes, compelling us to serve corporate empires built on attention harvesting. Hayes shows how these systems exploit our deepest neurological patterns and evolutionary inheritance. People walk streets like zombies, staring at phones. Families sit together in restaurants while absorbed in separate screens. We recognize the problem when we observe others, then feel our own devices buzzing. The result is widespread distraction, fractured focus, and addiction to trivial stimuli. Hayes provides a comprehensive framework for understanding this transformation and offers guidance for reclaiming control over our mental lives, political systems, and collective future.
Genres: social-issues, non-fiction, technology, 21st-century, current-affairs
Vibes: accessible, cautionary, critical, thought-provoking, urgent
Tropes: call-to-action, historical-parallel, systemic-critique
Period: 1800s, 21st century
336 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press
Content warnings: addiction