Chris Hayess spirited new book, The Sirens Call, takes a strong stand against the temptations of social media and information overload, on the grounds that the human attention span is ill equipped to absorb and act on such a constant stream of data. Among other things, the book reveals that Hayes has abandoned scrolling for the old-fashioned pleasure of reading the newspaper in print each day, which sounds like a pretty good prescription to this fan of old media. -- Gregory Cowles * The New York Times * We are mere cogs in the machine of attention capitalism Chris Hayes is onto something here, arguing that we are in an epoch-defining transition. Have we destroyed a generation? And how do we reclaim our minds? * The Canberra Times * In Chris Hayess recent book, The Sirens Call: How Attention Became the Worlds Most Endangered Resource, the political commentator identifies whats going on for all of us and the dangers. -- Margaret Sullivan * The Guardian * Hayes is especially good on why we should understand our attention as a valuable resource. He offers plenty of meaty bits on just how manipulated we are, why we feel so alienated despite the nets instant access to billions of people, and how the duplicitous online shoutiness of our particular moment keeps pulling people in. -- Karlin Lillington * The Irish Times * An ambitious analysis of how the trivial amusements offered by online life have degraded not only our selves but also our politics Pragmatic. -- Jennifer Szalai * The New York Times * Perhaps the most sophisticated contribution to the genre Hayes is right to deplore the commodification of intellectual life. But one can wonder whether ideas are less warped by the market when they are posted online to a free platform than when they are rolled into books, given bar codes, and sold in stores The panic over lost attention is, however, a distraction. -- Daniel Immerwahr * The New Yorker * Hayes persuasively and heartrendingly argues In perhaps the most surprising section of the book, Hayes examines his life as a famous person, one who involuntarily attracts the attention of strangers when he walks down the street. Here his writing comes alive with an emotional truth, an unflattering one offered in the service of his subject. -- Casey Schwartz * The Washington Post * Hayes offers a sharper and more politically acute analysis of the problem. We are living in what he calls the attention age and, with an infinite stream of information, everyone is clamouring to get our attention It is Hayes argument about the effect on politics of this war for attention that I found most arresting We have created a public that has difficulty sustaining any kind of focus at all, quite the opposite of the initial hope for the internet that the wisdom of the crowd would radically democratise global conversations. * Financial Times * The Sirens Call is a provocative book, readable and well-argued and alarming. Hayes thinks that even the most panicked critics of tech havent yet reckoned with the full breadth of its disruption, with the vast transformation it has wrought on both our public and inner lives. The book takes big swings at political and economic regimes but its also quite intimate. Reading it, I thought a lot about my son I dont want my sons consciousness in the custody of Google and Meta and ByteDance and Apple; I want it to belong to him. * The Washingtonian * A fascinating history of what [ Hayes] calls the attention age A timely guide thats not just about the attention industry that social media is consuming. He also explains the impact that the fight for attention is having on the consumers themselves A unique approach to a topic that is on everyones minds, but avoids feeling like a retread of already mined material on the topic. -- Andrew DeMillo * Associated Press * Hayess latest book is part warning, part philosophical inquiry, and a valuable contribution to a growing chorus of works that examines the enfeeblement of attention in the digital age Hayes writes with the urgency of someone keenly aware that the fight for attention is, at its core, a fight for control over our inner lives The Sirens Call reminds readers that the reclamation of attention is both a paramount personal challenge one that calls us to inhabit moments more fully and resist the pull of fragmentation and an essential societal endeavour. This book deserves yours. * The American Prospect * Chris Hayes sees around corners not just naming and explaining but also solving problems that the rest of us are only starting to sense. The Sirens Call is his biggest idea yet, and his most urgent. Reading it has made me change the way I work and think. Brilliant book. -- Rachel Maddow, host of the Emmy Award-winning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Prequel, Blowout, and Drift Attention has always been an undervalued commodity, yet its the very foundation of a meaningful life. In The Sirens Call, Chris Hayes uses his keen intellect and knowledge of history to show how the war over our attention is undermining us 24/7. What is the antidote for the urge to constantly grab what he calls the little attention box in our pockets? Read this book to find out! -- Katie Couric, award-winning journalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Going There With dazzling knowledge and insight, Chris Hayes not only diagnoses our growing social alienation but provides a path to sanity. If you long for something that will hold your attention and even help restore it, then read this utterly compelling and enlightening book. -- David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon Relatable and amusing The result is a savvy, if somewhat free-form, meditation on the modern attention economy. * Publishers Weekly * [ Hayes] facility for lucid synthesis is put to gratifying use in this smart, constructive book Amid the virtual maelstrom, Hayes wants to help readers reclaim a measure of mental tranquility An intelligent, forward-looking analysis of our increasing inability to stay focused. * Kirkus Reviews * Chris Hayes has diagnosed the critical ill of our age and no one is better positioned to understand and explain it. A profoundly careful and informed thinker, Hayes lives the disease he diagnoses. The depth of his insight, and urgency of his message, are essential reading for our time if we can muster the attention that careful thinking demands. -- Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School An intelligent and highly readable book. -- Matthew dAncona * The New European * The Sirens Call is persuasive, important, and wise. -- Ed Smith * The New Statesman * In short, attention is now a commodity to be appropriated with dire implications for our private and political lives and the smartphone is the facilitator, allowing Orwellian Trump-speak to go largely unchecked. Apart from wax, Hayes posits different ways of resisting the sirens relentless call. -- Steven Carroll * The Sydney Morning Herald * Hayes recounts the vast efforts by organisations to grab our attention particularly but not exclusively on screens leading to a less contented, less self-directed, and more chaotic inner life The Sirens Call is a thought-provoking and often heady book Hayes references the work of philosophers, economists, authors, and theorists, from Kierkegaard to Noam Chomsky that will resonate with many readers. -- Jake Whitney * The Progressive * The Sirens Call discusses the attention economy, exploring how our ability to focus has been reshaped by technology, markets, and social forces What was once an intimate, personal part of our lives has been transformed into a product that is extracted, measured, and monetised, often leading to a deep sense of alienation from ourselves it does an excellent job of framing attention as a resource under siege and why reclaiming it is more important than ever. * Sekar Writes * He's revealed how the very architecture of our information systems is fundamentally reshaping the way we think, communicate, and exist as social beings. As the battle for our attention intensifies, Hayes makes a compelling case that reclaiming our minds isn't just a matter of personal discipline it requires recognising and confronting the powerful forces that have turned our consciousness into a battleground. -- Parker Molloy * The Present Age * The book helps us understand the issues in the context of the development of attention markets, which have figured out ways to extract and commodify more of our attention It seems to me that we cannot tackle a problem until we acknowledge we have a problem. The Sirens Call helps us understand the nature of the beast. -- Lianne Dalzie * Newsroom *
