We don’t need to fear AI taking our jobs. We need to fear it taking our attention. Social media hooked us. AI is perfecting the addiction. But a movement to reclaim our focus is gaining ground.
I spent my early 20s at Google learning how to hack human attention. I analyzed data to understand exactly how to get people to click, scroll, and stay hooked to YouTube or Google Search. I was good at it. The work was fascinating, using behavioral science and machine learning to predict and influence what billions of people would do next.
What I didn’t realize then was that I was helping build the architecture of addiction that now defines modern life.
Last month, a billboard went up on Canal Street in NYC: “Scrolling Kills.” It kills our attention. Our time. The moments with our children, our ideas, our lives.
Within hours, it was everywhere, not because of clever marketing, but because it named what millions feel every day. Over one hundred million people have downloaded focus apps in the past year alone because they recognize this reality: hours vanishing into algorithmic black holes, every notification pulling them further from what actually matters.
