The things that we focus on and engage our attention with are usually assumed to be worth doing. But it has become increasingly clear that certain kinds of attention can be damaging. From advertising to social media, some argue that our attention is being hijacked. So much so that a recent study found two thirds of the UK public worried about an emerging attention crisis. Social media has become the latest battleground, with Australia restricting children’s access, and Spain and France appearing likely to follow. But what is at stake is not just screen time. Psychological studies suggest that attention shapes what we take for reality: focusing on one thing can make us blind to everything else in plain sight. What we pay attention to, therefore, becomes our whole world.

Should we recognise attention as central to human consciousness and our perception of reality, and therefore regulate and restrict those who try to hijack it? Should we redesign education and culture around attention, and prioritise practices that cultivate it? Or is this just the latest moral panic, no different from past fears about radio and television, with efforts to police attention risking a dystopian, 1984-style thought-police?