They Stole Your Attention

Trillion-dollar machines compete for your next 47 seconds. Here are the logs. > the feed is a slot machine that fits in a pocket > each scroll is a pull, each notification a bell > the reward is randomised on purpose. randomness is what hooks. > an AI tunes the feed against the weakest moments of the day > it learns the triggers faster than the user does > attention is the scarce resource of the age > and it gets strip-mined for ad revenue > deep work feels impossible because it's being out-competed > willpower loses to a machine built to beat it > the lever that works is removing the machine > reclaim the input, the output follows

Seconds of attention on one screen before switching Logged screen focus, knowledge workers & students · Gloria Mark, UC Irvine 0s 100s 150s 75s 47s 47s 2004 2012 2016 2025 reaffirmed · steady state data table yearavg seconds 2004~150201275201647 (median 40)202547, reaffirmed (replications 44–50) Measured by unobtrusive computer logging, workplace and home. The famous “goldfish attention span” stat is folklore; these are logged durations. The 2025 column marks Mark's January 2025 reaffirmation: the average has held at 47 seconds since ~2016, a steady state. Whisker shows the 40–50s band across the median and independent replications.

> UC Irvine has logged screen focus for twenty years > 2004: two and a half minutes on one screen > 2012: 75 seconds > 2016: 47 seconds. median 40. > 2025: still 47. > the machine only has to win once every 47 seconds

The interruption tax Focus interval vs cost to re-immerse · Gloria Mark, UC Irvine 47s 25min 26s one focus interval re-immersion after a switch ×32 the asymmetry data table quantitytime avg focus on one screen47 sre-immersion after a switch25 min 26 s Logged averages: 47 seconds of focus per screen; 25 minutes 26 seconds to fully re-immerse in the original task after a diversion.

> microsoft telemetry, 2025: the most-pinged fifth of workers eat an interruption every 2 minutes > 117 emails a day. 85% skimmed in under 15 seconds.

An 8-hour day, one tick per interruption Microsoft 365 telemetry, 2025 · most-pinged 20% of workers 09:00 13:00 17:00 240 pings in core hours 275 per day incl. after-hours 117 emails/day 85% read in <15s ping cadence: 2 min data table metricvalue interruption cadence, core hoursevery 2 mininterruptions per 24h275emails received/day (typical)117emails read in under 15s85% Rolling 28-day Microsoft 365 telemetry ending Feb 2025, top 20% of users by ping volume: meeting invites, emails and chats land every 2 minutes across the 9–5.

What one year of your attention sells for Meta ad revenue per user, US & Canada, $/year · company filings $0 $60 $120 $180 $240 $17 $233 2022 dip: Apple ATT 2011 2024 data table year$/user Annual average revenue per user, US & Canada segment, compiled from Meta quarterly filings. Meta moved the denominator from Facebook-only users to Family of Apps users in 2021; historical figures were restated. Full-year 2025 worldwide figure: $57.03 per user, an all-time high.

> meta earned $17 per north american user in 2011 > $233 in 2024. 13x in 13 years. > 2025 worldwide: $57 a head, an all-time high > teens: median 237 notifications a day. a quarter land during school hours. > humanity spent 5.3 trillion hours inside apps in 2025