Individual Responsibility

While reading Jenny Odell’s, “ How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy” I couldn't help but think how ironic and sometimes difficult it is to read. currently, state all I do is play into “The Attention Economy”. With the pandemic, we have been trapped inside for most of 2020 and most likely 2021. It is very difficult to not be another person who succumbed to technology. Living at home and going to school online, my head is constantly switching between being lazy and getting my work done. Reading a book that is trying to persuade me to resists the only thing that keeps me somewhat connected to “real” people is quite unsettling at times. Although Odell makes a valid argument and I agree with her mostly, I think that she is missing a certain aspect on how to resist the attention economy. Which are individuals need to gain responsibility to not be blind followers of“The Attention Economy” and take some of the blame for being absorbed by technology, and social media. I think a writer who does the opposite of blame society, or technology is Jordan Peterson.

I came across Jordan Peterson while watching a Joe Rogan podcast on youtube. Peterson was Rogan’s guest on the particular episode. For those that don’t know who Jordan Peterson is or maybe you do, you’ve probably heard the extreme hate from people on the left and the vulgar words people use to describe him online. Peterson has been called a nazi, misogynistic, a bigot, and the list goes on. They are simply not true, Peterson is very misunderstood. Peterson is a clinical psychologist and was a professor at the University of Toronto. Peterson provides advice for individuals to help change their lives. In “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” Peterson has a rule called, “Pursue what is Meaningful (Not What is Expedient)”. Peterson gives an example of Adam and Eve and says that

“Life is suffering… It’s Basically what God tells Adam and Eve immediately before he kicks them out of Paradise.”(161) Peterson discusses what you should do if life is just tragedy, saying, “Pursue pleasure. Follow your impulses… Lie, cheat, steal, deceive, and manipulate-but don’t get caught.” (162) Jordan Peterson

Peterson is describing what you should not do, that is if you have morals. Peterson gives information about how we learned to think about the future and prepare for it. He says,

“There is a long conceptual journey between merely feasting hungrily and learning to set aside some extra meat, smoked by the fire, for the end of the day, or for someone who isn’t present…or to share it with someone else(and those are very much the same thing as, in the former case, you are sharing with your future self.)”(164) Jordan Peterson

Having the willingness to learn that you could share with someone or your “future self”, gives meaning to life because you have to have the will to resist now, to eat later, and survive. To make a sacrifice is giving up something up for the sake of something else that you may need to do. These sacrifices help you prepare for your future, and life is full of sacrifices.

I believe that to give life meaning, you are constantly making a sacrifice. To do good in school you might need to sacrifice going to a party on the weekend to study, or maybe you even have to work on Saturdays so that you can help pay for school whereas you could’ve been having fun. Life is full of sacrifices and you have to have the will, desire, and discipline to get through life. Peterson explains very well, how a person should manage their being: he says, “The individual must conduct his or her life in a manner that requires the rejection of immediate gratification, of natural and perverse desires alike, no matter how powerfully and convincingly and realistically those are offered, and dispense, as well with the temptations of evil.” (184–185) You need to have a strong will to resist the short-lived joyous experience of a party on a weekend so you have time to study because it will allow you to accomplish your desire of achieving your goals. You need to have the discipline to resist, to make your life better for the future.

At the beginning of, “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy”. Odell takes us through how we are getting used by the technology we use daily. In Odell’s second line from the introduction, “In a world where our value is determined by our productivity, many of us find our every last minute captured, optimized, or appropriated as a financial resource by the technologies we use daily.” (xi) Odell is describing how individuals are viewed as a dollar sign by big corporations like Amazon and our social media platforms. This is how the media corporations are using you and Odell puts this in an influential description. Every day the media is constantly pumping out messages and images, and we don’t have the time to process yesterdays. With the new message out, yesterday’s message is forgotten about. Odell quotes Seneca, On the Shortness of Life to describe how people are going through life on a glass screen, instead of living in the “physical realm” as Odell calls it. Seneca’s quote talks about how people are distracted by the “foolish joy, the allurements of society” and how “little of yourself is left for you.” Odell’s use of this quote describes how she feels about social media, such as Facebook and Instagram. These social media platforms are robbing us of what life has to offer and instead people are more caught up in likes and follows. I think that people need to take responsibility at some point for what they are seeing on social media and what they can easily fall into.

In Chapter two Odell goes on to discuss experiences about people who create their retreat communities, and she gives her thoughts and perspectives on those communities. In the section where Odell writes about Epicurus and his garden school, Odell makes a compelling argument about retreating from society. In her closing sentence of this section Odell says, “Lastly, their wish to break with society and the media-proceeding from feelings I can sympathize with-ultimately reminds me not only of the impossibility of such a break but of my responsibility to that same society.” (38) I agree with Odell, here. Epicurus’ goal was to reshape a person’s perception of happiness. In my opinion, Odell should’ve expanded on why it is important for people to be happy with the things they have and the support from the people around them. People need to realize they should be grateful for the things they have in front of them, and the people around them. Instead, Odell gives the idea of “standing apart”. Odell says, “Unlike the libertarian blank slate that appeals to outer space, or even the communes that sought to break with historical time, this “other world” is not a rejection for the one we live in. Rather, it is a perfect image of this world when justice has been realized with and for everyone and everything that is already here.”(62) Odell is describing an unimaginable world, where everything is perfect, Paradise. Odell must check in with reality, and realize there is no “perfect” world, and you can’t just live in a fake one your mind makes, because what different is that from the virtual one we made.

However, Jordan Peterson brings real possible solutions to problems for individuals. Peterson has a rule called, “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world”. Peterson goes on to explain what the outcomes could be if everyone were to do this:

“Perhaps you will then see that if all people did this, in their own lives, the world might stop being an evil place. After that, with continued effort, perhaps it could even stop being a tragic place. Who knows what existence might be like if we all decided to strive for the best? Who knows what eternal heavens might be established by our spirits, purified by truth, aiming skyward, right here on the fallen Earth?”(159) Jordan Peterson

I took Peterson’s advice and I am still trying to do my best at it. I started to put my room, the only true place I get to call mine, in order. I believe Peterson brings a better solution to Odell’s “standing apart” because I think it’s is unrealistic, meanwhile Peterson’s is practical for an individual.

Now I think Odell and Peterson are opposites, and they are writing two different messages, and they would probably disagree with one another on other matters as well, but I think at a certain point their messages connect. In chapter four Odell discusses things like rendering and things you may notice but not see. “Most of us have experienced changes in rendering: you notice something once(or someone points it out to you) and then notice it everywhere,” she uses herself as an example. “As a simplistic example, my attention now ‘renders’ to be a world more full of birds than ever before I was an avid bird watcher.”(121–122) Odell is using herself to explain her idea of seeing things a different way, even if it is something you see every day, or maybe only once. I think this goes well with Peterson’s idea to put your life in order because you will learn to see things differently. It’s very similar to Odell’s last sentence in a paragraph that I think is significant. Odell says, “When the pattern of your attention has changed, you render your reality differently. You begin to move and act in a different world.”(122) I can relate to this because of Peterson’s advice I started to put things in order, for myself for the better. I started doing things I didn’t think would help motivate me like making my bed in the morning, waking up when I need to wake up, waking up earlier, eating breakfast, and cleaning my room (most of the time). But you might think these things are trivial, but when you perform them and you put things in order, you have a little less chaos in your life. While reading Odell, I was able to better understand her meaning behind “different world”, because it is a different world. She is right, and I have experienced it first hand. Waking up early and changing my morning routine is just a little change that brought me to a new reality. In terms of Odell, she is referring to changing our reality with the attention economy, but it still has the same effect. I think that if you combine Peterson’s thoughts of putting your home life in order, and Odell’s advice to understand your pattern of attention, you’ll be able to get your attention back, and then maybe you could then escape the attention economy.

In conclusion, Jenny Odell has opened my eyes even more to the negative effects of the daily use of technology and social media platforms. Odell makes her message clear in “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy”, but I think she is still missing an important part. I think Odell places a lot of blame on the corporations and media, and not enough on individuals for participating in making the media platforms we use worse. I believe Odell would have a better message and idea if she would elaborate more on the individual’s impact in contributing to making social media worse and playing into big corporations’ hands. I think if that Peterson creates practical solutions for people to do to make their lives better. Compared to Odell, who I think castes the blame more on the technology, and the platforms. Peterson explains that it is the individual who needs to take responsibility, not the corporations.

Odell, J. (2021). How to do nothing: Resisting the attention economy. New York, NY: Melville House.

Peterson, J. (2018). 12 Rule for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. Penguin Random House UK.