JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Recent years have seen growing public concern about the effects of persuasive digital technologies on public mental health and wellbeing. As the draws on our attention reach such staggering scales, and as our ability to focus our attention on our own considered ends erodes ever further, the need to understand and articulate what is at stake has become pressing. An emerging philosophical conversation endeavours to explore these questions, and describe what harms may be implicit in sustained attentional loss through digital distraction. In this ethical viewpoint, we explore the concept of “attentional harms” and emphasise their potential seriousness. We further argue that acknowledgment of these harms has relevance for evolving debates on digital inequalities. An under-discussed aspect of online inequality concerns the persuasions, and even manipulations, that help to generate sustained attentional loss. Some of the forces that contribute to excessive internet use and problematic engagement, including data-driven and targeted content, are related to socioeconomic factors: mobile devices, cheaper devices and “free” (versus premium) services often extract their value in an interplay of data-gathering and user engagement. These inequalities are poised to grow, and as they do so will concerns about justice with regards to the psychological and self-regulatory burdens of online participation for different internet users. In line with calls for multidimensional approaches to digital inequalities, it is therefore important to recognise these potential harms, as well as to empower internet-users against them even while expanding high-quality access.