Attention and its Crisis in Digital Society

Enrico Campo is a Research Fellow in Sociology at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Milan, Italy.

• Introduction1. Does Attention Exist?2. In Search of an Elusive Object3. Between the Mental and the Social 4. The Social Dimension 5. The Modern Ambivalence of the New6. Social Frames and Systems of RelevanceConclusion

"Enrico Campo deftly challenges conventional wisdom on the modern "crisis of attention", offering a unique sociological approach to understanding the cultural and normative organization of attention and "distraction." For psychologists, sociologists, and anyone interested in the ways that we focus, this timely and important book demands your attention."Wayne H. Brekhus, University of Missouri, USA; author Culture and Cognition (2015)"Attention and its Crisis provides the most synthetic, accessible, and nuanced overview of what a lot of us experience as "a crisis of attention." It empowers the reader by assembling a most precious toolbox of historical contextualizations, analytical views, conceptual insights, critical distance, and reflexive gestures which, together, help us map out where the problems stand – and how it may be possible to overcome some of them."Yves Citton, University of Paris, France; author of The Ecology of Attention (2017)"Enrico Campo’s book is the result of careful research and intelligent reflection that goes beyond the stereotypes that see the crisis of attention as a purely cognitive and purely individual syndrome. Campo brilliantly deals with the analysis of attention and its crisis in the digital age, submitting the individualistic and universalistic visions of contemporary psychology to critique."Alfonso Maurizio Iacono, University of Pisa, Italy; author of The History and Theory of Fetishism (2016)