how to pay attention again (the neuroscience of focus in the age of everything)

on the attention economy, and reclaiming your brain’s right to choose

There’s a specific kind of mental fog that creeps in when you’ve been scrolling for too long. You feel tired but wired, overstimulated and undernourished. You sit down to do something and your brain slips through your fingers…you check your socials, then your email, then your texts, then your socials again…toggling between five apps, and yet, nothing really lands.

A lot of us are noticing this quiet unraveling of our attention. We give it different names: brain fog, dopamine burnout, decision fatigue. But at the root, it’s the same pattern: we’re spending more and more time on things, while feeling less and less in them.

Our presence is scattered. Our focus fractured. And it often feels like a personal failing - like there’s something wrong with our brains, our willpower, our attention span.

But, attention is a limited resource. And it’s being constantly pulled (hijacked, really) by an ecosystem built to monetize distraction. And so, while the experience feels deeply personal, the mechanisms are very much neurological.

I explore this more deeply in: “why we can’t stop scrolling (and how to break the loop)”.

(If you’re new to my writing - all links in this piece lead to peer-reviewed studies, academic papers, and other thoughtful pieces/tidbits for deeper exploration. If you’re curious, you’ll find a full list of references at the end.)

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The Attention Economy (Why We Can’t Just “Look Away”)

Attention has become a currency. Every platform, ad, and algorithm is designed to compete for it. Not just to catch our eye, but to keep it. And they’re really, really good at it.

The loss of agency over our own attention that many of us are experiencing is not about willpower. It’s about neuroscience:

The brain is wired to seek novelty. When something new pops up (a notification, a headline, a banner), your dopamine system lights up. And dopamine isn’t just about pleasure; it’s about anticipation. In other words, it’s the thrill of what might be next that hooks you.

Each swipe, tap, and scroll becomes a mini dopamine hit. And your brain begins to crave it - not because it’s necessarily satisfying, but because it’s stimulating.

However, high stimulation over time leads to desensitization. The more novelty you consume (think how much content you consume in just 5 minutes of doomscrolling), the more you need to feel engaged. Everything else (reading a book, sitting still, writing an email) starts to feel slow, boring, uncomfortable even.

The result? Our baseline for focus shifts.

Our attention spans haven’t disappeared, they’ve been retrained.

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The Brain on Distraction (Why Your Mind Feels Like 47 Browser Tabs and a Pop-Up Ad)

Focus isn’t a single function - it’s a network. When we try to pay attention, several brain systems come online at once:

The prefrontal cortex (sometimes called “the CEO of the brain” is responsible for planning, decision-making, and impulse control. It’s the part that helps you stay on task and resist checking your phone every five minutes.

Then there’s the default mode network (the “daydreaming brain”), which lights up when your mind starts to wander or slip into autopilot.

And sitting between these two is the salience network, which acts like a mental switchboard, deciding what deserves your focus and what can be tuned out.

When everything’s working well, this system helps us stay anchored. But in a world of constant pings and pulls, the salience network gets overwhelmed. The prefrontal cortex ends up working overtime to suppress distractions - both internal (like anxious thoughts) and external (like notifications). The more we jump between tabs, apps, and conversations, the more mental energy each switch demands.

Think of it as doing “attention reps” at the gym. A few sets? Totally fine. But do it all day, every day, and that muscle gets tired. The brain starts defaulting to easier modes: autopilot, mindless scrolling, zoning out. Not because we’re weak or lazy - our neural pathways are simply adapting to what we repeat most.

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How to rebuild attention, gently and sustainably.

Despite it all, the brain is wonderfully plastic. Plus, attention is a skill, and skills can be retrained. But the key isn’t discipline, it’s design:

In the Moment (Micro-Wins for the Distracted Brain)

• Name the impulse. When you feel the urge to switch tasks or check your phone, pause and label it: “distraction impulse”. Tiny acts of awareness reactivate the prefrontal cortex and can give you back the freedom of choice.

• Start by changing the channel, not the habit. Often times, the brain isn’t just seeking distraction - it’s seeking stimulation. Try replacing doomscrolling with a more grounding form of novelty: a walk, a stretch, a song you haven’t heard in years.

• Make focus feel like a soft return, not a hard reset. If your brain is bouncing from one thing to another, give it a soft place to land: a sticky note saying “just this one little thing”, a 10-minute sand timer, or a favorite soundtrack (think: lo-fi beats, forest sounds, or this ambient jungle jazz 90’s DNB that makes answering emails feel like hacking into the mainframe).

For the Bigger Picture (Rewiring Our Long-Term Focus)

• Audit your inputs. What you consume shapes what your brain expects. If you’re feeding it constant noise, it forgets how to sit in stillness. Try a short “dopamine fast” by gently reducing high-stim inputs for a day - less scrolling, fewer flashing screens. Not as a punishment, but as an offering. A way to let your nervous system breathe, reset, and remember what quiet feels like.

• Reintroduce boredom. Boredom isn’t a failure of stimulation - it’s a soft threshold into something deeper. Let yourself sit in it. Stare out a window and watch the light shift. Walk without a podcast, just the sound of your feet and the world. That stillness? It’s space. And space is where ideas grow.

• Train attention like a muscle. Your focus doesn’t need “fixing”, it needs consistent practice. Try low-stakes “focus reps”: read for 5 minutes, journal without stopping, watch the full 3-minute video without speeding it up or checking the comments. Let it be small. Let it be enough. Little moments of sustained attention build a stronger foundation than any crash-course ever could.

• Protect your mental inbox. Your brain can only hold so many open loops before it starts to short-circuit. Try spilling your thoughts into a notebook before bed, or making a gentle “later list” for tasks that don’t need your now. Freeing up mental bandwidth frees up attention.

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Where your attention goes, your life flows.

Attention is more than just focus – it’s how we meet our moments.

It’s the way we notice the warmth in someone’s voice when they say our name, the way food tastes different when eaten barefoot in the backyard on a humid evening, the way song lyrics hit differently when they mirror something we’ve lived through, the “it’s all going to be alright-ness” we feel when we hear the tinkling laughter of children as a long summer day comes to an end.

Attention is presence. And presence isn’t just powerful – it can be radical. In a world where attention is monetized, captured, manipulated – reclaiming it is an act of resistance.

The attention economy exists for a reason (a quick glance at this marketing guide tells us enough about how our attention is treated by marketing firms - like it’s not ours to begin with). Entire systems are built on keeping us hooked, pulled, and scattered. These platforms and products are designed, very intentionally, to hijack our neural wiring. To keep us clicking, scrolling, consuming. Not because we’re weak or undisciplined, but because everything around us is engineered to override our natural rhythms. The game is rigged from the start.

So when you feel like you’ve lost your focus, please know (and this is also me, reminding myself): it’s not a personal failure. It’s not a flaw in your character. It’s your nervous system trying to survive in a world of infinite tabs and bottomless feeds.

And yet, at the end of the day, attention is still ours. No matter how many forces try to seize it, shape it, or sell it - our attention begins and ends with us. We are the only ones who can reclaim it. That’s our responsibility. And that’s also our power.

Yes, it can feel overwhelming to realize we’re the ones steering the ship. But it’s also deeply empowering. Because it means we get to choose - where we look, what we nourish, how we return to ourselves.

That’s not a small thing. That’s autonomy. That’s presence. And presence is where our life lives.

I hope this post gave you something to sit with. If it resonated, your thoughts, feelings, and experiences are fully welcome here (in the comments, community chat, or message me!) <3

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References (in order of appearance…more or less)

1. Steinhorst, C. (2024, February 6). Lost in the scroll: The hidden impact of the attention economy. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtsteinhorst/2024/02/06/lost-in-the-scroll-the-hidden-impact-of-the-attention-economy/

   constant digital input fragments attention and weakens connection (article)

2. Haubursin, C. (2018, February 27). It’s not you. Phones are designed to be addicting. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2018/2/27/17053758/phone-addictive-design-google-apple

   phones use design tricks (like notifications and infinite scroll) to keep us hooked (video)

3. Hayes, C. (2025, January 27). The Siren’s Call: How attention became the world’s most endangered resource [Interview by S. Inskeep]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/27/the-sirens-call-chris-hayes-attention-economy

   attention is a finite resource increasingly shaped by media and algorithms (podcast)

4. Costa, V. D., Tran, V. L., Turchi, J., & Averbeck, B. B. (2014). Dopamine modulates novelty seeking behavior during decision making. Behavioral Neuroscience, 128(5), 556–566. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037128

   dopamine fuels the brain’s drive to explore the new and unfamiliar (research article)

5. Schultz, W. (2016). Dopamine reward prediction-error signalling: A two-component response. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(3), 183–195. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2015.26

   dopamine tracks what might happen next - hooking us on anticipation, not just reward (review article)

6. Nimitvilai, S., Herman, M., You, C., Arora, D. S., McElvain, M. A., Roberto, M., & Brodie, M. S. (2014). Dopamine D2 receptor desensitization by dopamine or corticotropin releasing factor in ventral tegmental area neurons is associated with increased glutamate release. Neuropharmacology, 82, 28–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2014.03.006

   chronic stimulation weakens dopamine’s effect, raising the brain’s threshold for engagement (research article)

7. Rossi, A. F., Pessoa, L., Desimone, R., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2008). The prefrontal cortex and the executive control of attention. Experimental Brain Research, 192(3), 489–497. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1642-z

   prefrontal cortex helps direct attention and switch focus based on goals (research article)

8. Mason, M. F., Norton, M. I., Van Horn, J. D., Wegner, D. M., Grafton, S. T., & Macrae, C. N. (2007). Wandering minds: The default network and stimulus-independent thought. Science, 315(5810), 393–395. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1131295

   the DMN becomes active during mind-wandering and daydreaming (research article)

9. Menon, V., & Uddin, L. Q. (2010). Saliency, switching, attention and control: A network model of insula function. Brain Structure and Function, 214(5–6), 655–667. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-010-0262-0

   the salience network helps the brain detect what matters and shift attention accordingly (review article)

10. Ahn, J., Lee, D., Namkoong, K., & Jung, Y.-C. (2021). Altered functional connectivity of the salience network in problematic smartphone users. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 636730. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.636730

    problematic phone use disrupts salience network balance, making it harder to filter distractions (fMRI study)