Your attention online is now a currency. The concept of “human fracking” describes how money is made.
We all spend time on the internet every day – sometimes several hours. Online platforms and apps are now designed to keep your attention for as long as possible. Algorithms ensure that you scroll and stay on the application for as long as possible. Your attention is the most important currency for platforms like Instagram, YouTube or X. Activities online are analyzed and monetized.
The term “human fracking” represents an increasingly critical view of this development. The allusion to fracking raw materials from the earth is no coincidence: the idea behind the term is that human attention in the digital age is handled in a similar way to raw materials. Your attention is systematically extracted and monetized.
This means “Human Fracking”
In a report in the Guardian, D. Graham Burnett, a history professor at Princeton University, explains the principle behind human fracking by comparing it to fracking raw materials: Instead of pumping substances into the earth at high pressure to bring hard-to-reach natural gas to the surface, as is the case with fracking, human fracking involves “pumping” more and more content into the consciousness of users at high pressure in order to capture their attention and market content.
The longer you stay on a platform, the more advertising can be shown to you and the more time the algorithm has to analyze your online behavior. In other words: the more money those responsible earn.
This is why human fracking is problematic
The big problem behind human fracking: It ensures that our attention is increasingly tied to the screens. Since our time on the Internet brings the responsible companies money, they naturally do everything they can to keep us glued to our screens for as long as possible.
The result: algorithms that tempt us to scroll and make us downright addicted. This is not a random development, but a direct result of human fracking. The negative effects of endless scrolling and doom scrolling are well known:
- Feelings of fear
- uncertainty
- depressive moods
-
physical effects such as nausea, headaches, tension, decreased appetite, sleep problems, increased blood pressure
- a completely changed stimulation behavior of the brain (to the point of dependence on stimulation through scrolling)
Burnett explains that, figuratively speaking, human fracking is doing as much damage to our social and mental landscape as fracking does to the environment. The consequences of paying more attention to our screens instead of our real lives are an inevitable instability and poisoning of our daily (social) life.
After all, we can no longer use the attention that goes into endless scrolling for time with family, friends and ourselves. In addition, the consequences of constant scrolling also negatively influence our attention in real life.
How you can defend yourself against human fracking
Through human fracking, companies make money from your time on their platforms. The only way to resist this is to deprive them of their most important currency: your attention.
According to Burnett, the “enemy” is not the Internet or your smartphone per se, but the way in which applications that can be used there are specifically designed in the spirit of human fracking in order to capture your attention. So you don’t necessarily need to switch to a flip phone to oppose human fracking. According to Burnett, users have the right and obligation to reclaim their attention and make it their own again:
- We need to remember that our attention is precious and we should better invest it in the things that really matter: making time for our loved ones and ourselves, doing more fun things offline, and being present and mindful in the here and now.
The Daily Princetonian, a newspaper published by Princeton University, suggests that reframing your thoughts around screen time can also help:
- For example, replace the sentence “I’m on my cell phone too much” with: “My behavior (on my cell phone) is being specifically influenced (by human fracking).”
What we ultimately have to do to oppose human fracking is as simple as it is sometimes difficult in our digital world:
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Spend less time on the screen and instead devote our attention to real life.
- By being present in the here and now and giving your attention to your life and the people in it, those responsible for human fracking automatically have less of your attention left to “pump out”. At the same time, you are also doing something good for your mental health.
Read more on Techzle\.com:
- Very few people know: This is how you switch your smartphone to minimalism mode
- For less distraction: This is how you use focus mode on your cell phone
- Minimalism on your cell phone: 7 tips for more order
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