The Sirens' Call

Alienation in The Sirens’ Call refers to the sense of disconnection individuals experience when their attention is consistently commodified by corporate entities and technological systems. Chris Hayes draws parallels between workers in the Industrial Revolution—whose labor became alienated from them—and modern users whose capacity to focus is extracted as a market resource. This estrangement manifests in feelings of anxiety, purposeless scrolling, and an eroded sense of self when technology monopolizes one’s mental space. Hayes uses alienation to highlight how pervasive the commodification of attention can be, infiltrating our personal relationships and moments of solitude. By outlining alienation as a structural rather than purely personal issue, the book calls on readers to recognize the collective need for legal, social, and technological reforms that protect individuals from losing autonomy over their own cognition.

The “Attention Age” is Hayes’s term for the current epoch, defined by the relentless pursuit of human focus as the most valuable commodity. Unlike the Industrial Age—where raw materials like coal or oil fueled economic power—today’s prime resource lies in capturing, selling, and manipulating our attention. Hayes contends that this shift has radically reshaped global capitalism, as tech giants strive to lock users into prolonged, monetized engagement via smartphones, social media, and ubiquitous digital platforms.