‘Attention has always been an undervalued commodity, yet it’s the very foundation of a meaningful life. In The Sirens’ Call, Chris Hayes uses his keen intellect and knowledge of history to show how the war over our attention is undermining us 24/7. What is the antidote for the urge to constantly grab what he calls “the little attention box” in our pockets? Read this book to find out!’
Katie Couric, award-winning journalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Going There
‘With dazzling knowledge and insight, Chris Hayes not only diagnoses our growing social alienation but provides a path to sanity. If you long for something that will hold your attention and even help restore it, then read this utterly compelling and enlightening book.’
David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon
‘[Hayes’] facility for lucid synthesis is put to gratifying use in this smart, constructive book … Amid the virtual maelstrom, Hayes wants to help readers reclaim a measure of mental tranquility … An intelligent, forward-looking analysis of our increasing inability to stay focused.’
Kirkus Reviews
‘Relatable and amusing … The result is a savvy, if somewhat free-form, meditation on the modern attention economy.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Chris Hayes has diagnosed the critical ill of our age — and no one is better positioned to understand and explain it. A profoundly careful and informed thinker, Hayes lives the disease he diagnoses. The depth of his insight, and urgency of his message, are essential reading for our time — if we can muster the attention that careful thinking demands.’
Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School
‘Chris Hayes’s spirited new book, The Sirens’ Call, takes a strong stand against the temptations of social media and information overload, on the grounds that the human attention span is ill equipped to absorb and act on such a constant stream of data. Among other things, the book … reveals that Hayes has abandoned scrolling for the old-fashioned pleasure of reading the newspaper in print each day, which sounds like a pretty good prescription to this fan of old media.’
Gregory Cowles, The New York Times
‘Perhaps the most sophisticated contribution to the genre … Hayes is right to deplore the commodification of intellectual life. But one can wonder whether ideas are less warped by the market when they are posted online to a free platform than when they are rolled into books, given bar codes, and sold in stores … The panic over lost attention is, however, a distraction.’
Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker
‘Hayes observes his subject from multiple angles, noting that attention isn’t just something exploited by sinister forces … Occasionally the book gets a little textbook-y … Overall, Hayes keeps it lively … I wasn’t entirely satisfied with Hayes’ ideas for remedies.’
Katy Read, The Star Tribune
‘Hayes persuasively and heartrendingly argues … In perhaps the most surprising section of the book, Hayes examines his life as a famous person, one who involuntarily attracts the attention of strangers when he walks down the street. Here his writing comes alive with an emotional truth, an unflattering one offered in the service of his subject.’
Casey Schwartz, The Washington Post
‘An ambitious analysis of how the trivial amusements offered by online life have degraded not only our selves but also our politics … Pragmatic.’
Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
‘Hayes offers a sharper and more politically acute analysis of the problem. We are living in what he calls the “attention age” and, with an infinite stream of information, everyone is clamouring to get our attention … It is Hayes’ argument about the effect on politics of this war for attention that I found most arresting … We have created a public that has difficulty sustaining any kind of focus at all, quite the opposite of the initial hope for the internet that the wisdom of the crowd would radically democratise global conversations.’
Financial Times
‘The Sirens’ Call is a provocative book, readable and well-argued and alarming. Hayes thinks that “even the most panicked critics” of tech haven’t yet reckoned with the full breadth of its disruption, with the vast transformation it has wrought on both our public and inner lives. The book takes big swings — at political and economic regimes — but it’s also quite intimate. Reading it, I thought a lot about my son … I don’t want my son’s consciousness in the custody of Google and Meta and ByteDance and Apple; I want it to belong to him.’
The Washingtonian
‘A fascinating history of what [Hayes] calls the attention age … A timely guide that’s not just about the attention industry that social media is consuming. He also explains the impact that the fight for attention is having on the consumers themselves … A unique approach to a topic that is on everyone’s minds, but avoids feeling like a retread of already mined material on the topic.’
Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press
‘Hayes’s latest book is part warning, part philosophical inquiry, and a valuable contribution to a growing chorus of works that examines the enfeeblement of attention in the digital age … Hayes writes with the urgency of someone keenly aware that the fight for attention is, at its core, a fight for control over our inner lives … The Sirens’ Call reminds readers that the reclamation of attention is both a paramount personal challenge — one that calls us to inhabit moments more fully and resist the pull of fragmentation — and an essential societal endeavour. This book deserves yours.’
The American Prospect
‘We are mere cogs in the machine of “attention capitalism” … Chris Hayes is onto something here, arguing that we are in an epoch-defining transition. Have we destroyed a generation? And how do we reclaim our minds?’
The Canberra Times
