Book SummaryThe Sirens' Call, by Chris Hayes

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Sirens' Call

In The Sirens’ Call (2025), MSNBC host Chris Hayes argues that attention has become the world’s most valuable and contested resource. Unlike previous eras where physical materials or even information held primary economic value, we now live in an “attention economy” where our mental focus has become a commodity that powerful businesses systematically extract and monetize. Tech companies like Facebook and TikTok, media organizations, advertisers, and politicians have developed sophisticated techniques to capture our involuntary attention—an automatic response we can’t consciously control—and convert it into profits and power.

Hayes contends that commodification of...

The Sirens' Call Summary What Is Attention? Why Is It Now Our Scarcest Resource?

Every moment of every day, you’re paying attention to something. Whether you’re reading a book, listening to music, having a conversation, or simply daydreaming, your mind is constantly directing your focus toward specific information while filtering out everything else. Hayes argues that attention is not merely something we do: It’s the fundamental substance of our conscious experience. Without attention, there would be no awareness, no thought, no perception of the world around us.

Attention Encompasses Both Inward and Outward Focus

While Hayes emphasizes that we’re always paying attention to something, sometimes our attention is focused internally rather than externally. Neuroscience research reveals that we spend significant time using the default mode network (DMN): the brain regions active during daydreaming, remembering, and planning. The DMN helps us integrate personal experiences to create meaning and understand social situations. This suggests that conscious experience involves two distinct types of attention—outward and inward—that can each [operate in either “instrumental”...

The Sirens' Call Summary How Is the Attention Economy Reshaping Society?

In this section, we’ll take a closer look at how these changes have played out in the media we consume, the political dialogue we take part in, the social validation we pursue—and the resulting fragmentation of our public discourse.

Media Organizations Compete for Our Limited Attention

The transformation of attention into a commodity has altered how media organizations operate. Hayes explains, based on his experience at MSNBC, that the competition for attention degrades public discourse as news organizations abandon their traditional role of informing citizens in favor of capturing eyeballs. Every cable news show receives minute-by-minute ratings data that creates intense pressure on hosts and producers. Hayes describes how when a segment performs well, the rush of validation encourages more of the same content. When ratings drop, the fear of failure drives increasingly sensational programming choices.

(Shortform note: HBO’s The Newsroom illustrated the pressure to prioritize attention over truth—and its psychological toll—when the...

The Sirens' Call Summary How Can We Reclaim Our Attention?

Hayes explains that we can take action, individually and collectively, to resist the attention economy and demand a healthier path forward.

Resist the Attention Economy Personally

Hayes acknowledges that individual resistance to the attention economy faces enormous challenges, but argues that personal strategies remain both necessary and potentially effective. The attention economy is designed by teams of engineers and psychologists using billions of dollars and sophisticated technology to exploit human psychology. Individual willpower alone can’t consistently overcome such systematic manipulation. But individual action, while it can’t solve a systemic problem, can help you reduce harm as larger changes develop—and it gives you a way to model more thoughtful approaches for others to follow.

The most radical personal strategy Hayes proposes is abandoning smartphones in favor of “dumb phones,” which can make calls and send texts but can’t access the internet or run apps. Hayes argues that smartphones have become so central to the attention economy’s business model that opting out represents a form of economic resistance as well as personal protection. For those...

Shortform Exercise: Who’s Capturing Your Attention?

Hayes argues that our attention has become the most valuable and endangered resource in modern society. This exercise helps you analyze how your own attention is being captured, monetized, and potentially exploited.

Take inventory of your digital ecosystem. List the apps, platforms, and media sources you engage with most frequently. For each one, identify whether it mainly consumes your attention, helps you gain others’ attention, or both.