Pay Attention by David Pakamn

PAY ATTENTION by David Pakman (The Echo Machine) describes “How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain.” Pakman is known for his progressive political analysis and is Host and Executive Producer of The David Pakman Show. Although the text feels a bit like a lecture at times, he does raise provocative points. One is “Rather than censoring information outright, massive power sits with the ability to flood the environment so completely that meaning itself collapses. Not the power to ban speech, but the power to make speech indistinguishable from noise. Not the power to force belief, but the power to shape attention, including what people see, what they ignore, and what they emotionally react to before reason has a chance to intervene.” Pakman advocates for nuance over outrage. And laments that “creativity has been subsidized by a system that doesn’t care if you are right, as long as you are loud.” And he writes eloquently about how “a fractured public is the inevitable byproduct of a system that optimizes for engagement above all else.” While descriptive of the current situation, Pakman does not offer an action-oriented plan. His primary solution seems to be the importance of raising awareness (“choose friction over flow”); he will help readers to label and perhaps discuss many of their feelings (What is reality? Who should I trust?) while also scaring them: “We aren't just losing our ability to agree on facts. We are losing our ability to recognize that facts are even a necessary component of reality.”