This might be an obvious question - YES.

As a citizen of America, a mother to a beautiful baby girl, a college student, and a communications degree major; the state of our country’s media is of intense interest to me. That interest sharpened rapidly upon reading Johann Hari’s book below. This book is a bomb going off - it acknowledges so many facets of what makes modern life so mentally exhausting and unfulfilling. Our focus has been stolen. Johann has compiled research and conversations with some of the top players in the field and come to the conclusion that we are all being manipulated for profit. Even the workers who are helping to build media systems are themselves manipulated by the products they get paid to design and bring to life. Is this Orwellian? Or something even further along than that? Where will this lead to, if unchecked?

“Our attention and focus have been raided, pillaged, and poisoned by huge external forces—and we have been told to do the equivalent of dusting our homes and washing our hands more, when we should have been doing the equivalent of banning lead paint and petrol all along”, Hari states.

If we are quite busy scrolling, racking up debt online, and watching tv, no one dissents or thinks about the impact of media manipulation. We don’t explore new ideas or participate in deep critical thinking with ourselves or those around us.

We also miss out on some of the most beautiful moments of our short lives. We are the first generation who may remember more about our screens than actual lived experiences. This is a PURPOSEFUL design. The ONLY motivation behind this is to feed corporations money while we watch their ads. You are a mere dollar sign in the system to be controlled and puppeteered.

Facebook and Google earn additional profits for each second you are viewing a screen on their platforms and they lose money when you put your phone or computer away. Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff calls this, “surveillance capitalism”. Surveillance capitalism is the predominating factor in most of our lives at this juncture. The question is, should it be? Do we want it to be? Humanity holds so many gifts that are inherent in our nature. Almost none of these gifts are reflected back to us by the corporations that control our daily lives. They do not care if we feel whole and valuable as human beings. In fact, it would be more profitable if we didn’t.

What do you want to do to fight the injustice? What can you do to protect yourself against the deleterious forces we encounter? What are the answers?

They will need to be individual, nuanced, and self-chosen. Stolen Focus has made me reflect even more deeply on how unimportant we can be made through capitalistic pillaging. I know that each of us holds truly amazing gifts, that we are whole as we are, and beautiful as we are.

A few things I have chosen to do for my family, and for myself, as a safeguard against the psychological effects of media manipulation:

• listen to positive subliminal messaging tracks daily (on various topics such as money, body image, and self-worth)

• read books every. single. day. for myself, and for my daughter

• maintain a garden and connection with the earth

• journal regularly and practice self-reflection and self-gratitude

• a private social media account to reduce the urge to post for likes and stranger’s appreciation of my photos

• commit myself to being a voice for the voiceless, for furthering my education about racial privilege, systemic injustices, and environmental justice

• most importantly; find that inner voice and listen to her