How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

By Jenny Odell, Rebecca Gibel

Subjects: Arts, Information technology, 303.48/33, Work, Internet Art, ART / Digital, Revolution, Technology, Technology & engineering / social aspects, Hm851 .o374 2019, Political participation, Attention--philosophy, Philosophy, NATURE / Environmental Conservation & Protection, Politics and government, Attention, Information technology--social aspects, Digital Art, Tec052000 nat011000 art046000, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects, Art / digital, Attention Economy, Art and society, Arts--philosophy, New York Times bestseller, Work--philosophy, Reflection (Philosophy), Technology, social aspects, New York Times reviewed, nyt:hardcover-nonfiction=2020-01-19, Resistance, Nature / environmental conservation & protection, Reflection (philosophy), Social aspects

Description: Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity . . . doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress. Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book is a four-course meal in the age of Soylent.