The Gods We Serve: Pursuing God in an Attention Economy
By Mike MacLennan, Partnerships Manager at Everything Network, and former parliamentary researcher on online harms.
“The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Jubilee Centre or its trustees.”
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3)
Who or what governs your attention and behaviour? For some, the answer appears obvious: “It’s God!” the enthusiast cries. For others, this question prompts a silent lament over the porn, pride or alcohol they feel enslaved to. A moment of self-reflection might pierce the pretence some of us live in.
What is the first thing you think about in the morning, or the last thing you look at before you sleep? Are your thoughts on your job, your family, your faith? Or were you thinking about the website you've been visiting, the app you just viewed, or your most recent post on your favourite “social” media?
The site, the app, and the post creates a seemingly irresistible pull of attention into our phones. This is by design, as tech platforms exploit human vulnerabilities for profit. It’s called ‘attention hacking’: it is the deliberate design of addictive technologies like infinite scroll and autoplay, that monetises human focus, turning our time into a commodity [1,2].
The feeling that our attention is under assault is a familiar one. In less than two decades, smartphones and social media platforms have transformed not only our communication patterns but our cognitive landscapes and social priorities [3]. While technology offers remarkable benefits, its darker consequences are increasingly apparent: societal fragmentation, rising cynicism, and an epidemic of isolation. Though smartphones haven’t caused it all, they function as the catalysts intensifying distraction, division, and disconnection. Addictive by design, smartphones are deliberately engineered to hijack our attention and sell it to the highest bidder.
Attention hacking – fuelled by the attention economy – erodes human focus and relationships, undermining the Christian call to love God and neighbour. By asking, “Who commands your attention?” I frame technology as a rival god, compelling a response grounded in personal experience and collective action.
Social Analysis
When Steve Jobs stepped onto the stage at Macworld in 2007 and announced Apple’s revolutionary new device, “an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator,” none could have predicted that smartphones would fundamentally reshape human attention and become objects of daily devotion [4]. The iPhone launch marked the beginning of a technological transformation that would radically alter how humans engage with each other, themselves, and God.
Yet it wasn't until several subsequent developments that the full impact became apparent. The 2008 launch of the App Store created an ecosystem of attention-capturing applications [5]. By 2010, push notifications became ubiquitous, creating persistent interruptions throughout our days. The 2012 acquisition of Instagram by Facebook and 2014 launch of algorithmic feeds across major platforms completed this transformation, as content became specifically engineered to maximise engagement [6].
The human experience of this ‘attention economy’ is that of the commodity: human focus is commodified through deliberate design that exploits psychological vulnerabilities for corporate profit [7]. Through algorithmically curated distractions, we experience what Dr. Barnett describes as “human fracking,” an aggressive extraction of our most finite resource: time [8]. With our focus in increasingly short supply, companies employ ever more sophisticated techniques to extract this precious resource to sell advertising.
I would like to draw attention to just three costs of the hacking of our attention:
First, the severe cognitive toll. Average attention spans have dwindled from 12 minutes to approximately 47 seconds since 2000, shattering thought processes and the capacity for deep engagement [9]. The average human attention span has now fallen below that of a goldfish. This erosion manifests in struggles with complex texts, including scripture, reflecting what some scholars describe as our emergence into a “post-literate” society where deep reading is increasingly rare [10].
The sheer scale of our attention captured is staggering. Around 720 billion minutes are lost to social platforms each day, equivalent to 500 million years of collective human time annually [11]. Contemporary research indicates the average 18-year-old is on course to spend 93% of their free time staring at screens throughout their lifetime, with children now spending less time outdoors than prisoners in high-security jails [12]. This represents an unprecedented shift in developmental environments.
Second, the relational toll has been profound, particularly in sexual development and intimacy. If you woke up as a teen in the 2000s, you might be lucky enough to stumble upon your older siblings’ stash of Playboy magazines. Two decades later, any child with a smartphone can access more pornographic content in five minutes than their ancestors could in a lifetime. And they do.
Pornography is now ubiquitous, pervading every aspect of contemporary British culture. The average first encounter with pornography takes place at 12-13 years old, frequently by accident through social media platforms like Twitter (41%), Instagram (33%), and Snapchat (32%) [13].
The nature of this content has also drastically changed [14]. From rudimentary sketches in the Stone Age, to erotic pottery during the Roman Empire, to painted and written erotica from the French Revolution, visual sexual content existed but with significant constraints on production and distribution [15]. The 21st century represents an unprecedented rupture in this progression, with streaming “tube sites” like Pornhub offering unlimited, free, high-definition video content of an increasingly extreme nature, accessible to anyone with an internet connection regardless of age. While some governments are taking steps to reduce access – with the UK’s Online Safety Act requiring age verification for pornography sites from July 2025 – anyone with a simple VPN can still skirt the rules [16]. This proliferation and escalating extremity of pornographic content has altered human behaviour, illustrated by the rising prevalence of strangulation during sex, a practice normalised through mainstream pornography [17].
Thirdly, there is an alarming toll on mental health, particularly among young people. Jonathan Haidt documents how smartphone use has exacerbated deteriorating youth mental health. Rates of depression among teenage girls doubled between 2010 and 2019, coinciding with widespread social media usage [18]. These trends echo in self-harm emergency room visits which increased 62% for girls aged 10-14 between 2009 and 2015, and by 311% between 2009 to 2022 [19]. Harmful consequences are not limited to girls either. Teen male suicide rates increased 54% between 2010 and 2017 [19]. Social media’s algorithms, designed to maximise engagement, amplifying outrage, anxiety, and social validation. These are just some of the costs to children’s wellbeing as social media encourages a perpetual state of comparison and self-evaluation.
The confluence of these trends – cognitive fragmentation, relationship distortion, and psychological harm – represents a societal crisis demanding both theological reflection and a coordinated response.
Theological Reflection
What does it mean to have our attention hacked from a Christian perspective? The attention economy presents profound theological questions about human dignity, worship, and our capacity for relationship with God and our neighbour.
“You shall have no other gods before me.” [20]
While Christians acknowledge the importance of loving God, we frequently misunderstand what it functionally means to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength [21]. The connection between love and attention is inseparable: you cannot claim to love someone without giving your attention to them.
Oliver O’Donovan articulates the importance of attention in love through his definition of the two key elements of classical Christian love. The first is ‘wisdom’, the proper ordering of things; the second is ‘delight,’ meaning “affective attention” [22]. Love must include your attention.
Delight in God is not passive but active; it requires the giving of our attention. It is ridiculous to claim to love your parents, while never giving them any of your time. Love of this kind stands in contrast to an internet that “seizes our attention only to scatter it” [23]. Like Peter sinking when he became distracted from Christ [24], our attention wanders from God to the fleeting moment. Jesus warns listeners to “pay attention to what you hear” in the parable of the sower: “the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful” [25]. This perfectly captures how digital distractions suffocate spiritual growth. If you claim to love God, you must give Him your attention.
Do you delight in God? When Elijah sought the Lord, His presence was not found in the wind, earthquakes or fire [26]. The Lord’s voice today does not come to us in a barrage of pings, push notifications and emails. God speaks with a “still small voice” [27]. The digital cacophony we are bombarded with drowns out His voice. You must pay attention.
For many Christians, the competition for attention between smartphones and God represents a losing battle: a form of “digital hypnosis” that leaves us spiritually numb [28]. Attempts to spend significant time in Scripture and prayer grow increasingly difficult, yet these disciplines remain fundamental to spiritual formation. As Willard puts it, “The greatest need you and I have...is renewal of our minds through immersion in God’s Word” [29].
The struggle many of us face with our phones reflects a warning against idolatry in Galatians. Idolatry is not merely the worship of false deities, but an enslavement to entities that “by nature are not gods” [30]. Today's technological platforms increasingly demand this form of servitude, requiring constant attention while offering fleeting dopamine rewards in return. Jesus warned us that “No one can serve two masters” [31].
Our smartphones often occupy the position of functional deities in our lives. It’s the first thing we look at in the morning and the last thing we see at night. This is idolatry. Our devices promise omniscience through instant information, omnipresence through connectivity, omnipotence through digital tools, and a degree of immortality as Facebook plans to use AI to generate user posts after they die [32]. These attributes belong to God alone.
If we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, we must first place Him in His proper position: first above all other things, including our technologies. Jesus taught, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” [33]; in an attention economy, our treasure is precisely where we spend our time.
“Love your neighbour as yourself.” [34]
The second greatest commandment is also undermined by the attention economy: attention hacking disrupts not only our relationship with God but with our neighbour and ourselves.
Social media platforms fundamentally alter self-perception, encouraging what Trueman calls “expressive individualism,” a mindset where meaning derives primarily from self-expression rather than relationship [35]. While Jesus taught that true love requires us to “deny ourselves” [36], social media trains us in precisely opposite habits, promoting self-focus, materialism, judgment, and comparison. Bonhoeffer also reminds us that “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community” [37]. This is what social media offers: the “dream of community” without the substance. Digital platforms distract from the love of others required to create community.
The harm of smartphones and social media also undermines distinct human value. While humans are made in the image of God, digital platforms assault this inherent dignity and value, training immediate value judgements through likes and comments. The commandment not to covet [38] is also violated every time others are reduced to objects of desire or comparison in digital spaces. Pornography is especially significant in remaking people made in God’s image into commodities, undermining God’s call to honour others as bearers of His likeness. Pornography reduces people to objects of consumption [39]. Jesus’s teaching to love neighbours opposes this objectification.
Finally, attention hacking shatters deep engagement with others. Scripture calls believers to “bear one another’s burdens” [40] and “weep with those who weep” [41], practices that require attention. Digital platforms, on the other hand, create only the illusion of companionship; the full demands of friendship are lost.
Social media and even video calls may preserve communication, but they cannot fully replicate embodied presence. We experience connection without enjoying the fullness of face-to-face relationship. Scripture itself makes this distinction in our relationship with God. Though Christians know God now through Scripture and the work of the Spirit, our relationship with Him remains partial until the day we “will see his face” [42]. Present communion is real, but it is not yet complete. In a similar way, relationships maintained through our phones may mediate connection, but they cannot substitute for the fullness of a face-to-face relationship.
To see others as God sees them, and to respond to the command to love your neighbour, runs counter to attention-hacking platforms that feed us endless distractions and alters how we see others.
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” [43].
How should you respond?
Overcoming the relentless assault on our cognitive, relational, and spiritual well-being requires your attention. I offer three, simple, practical responses:
First is spending more time with others. The epidemic of loneliness and social isolation directly correlates with smartphone adoption and social media use, with social media spaces creating the illusion rather than the substance of friendship. Building real relationships offers an antidote.
All parents should encourage their children to spend more time outdoors with greater independence and free play. This approach combats the isolation that digital platforms foster, teaching children to value direct human connection.
Christians should also be mindful of actively replacing screen time with time devoted to God and building Christian fellowship. If you're in the habit of reaching for your phone first thing in the morning, get an alarm clock and place a Bible next to your bed instead. If your free time is spent in isolation on social media, commit to replacing time on screen with face-to-face community. The Christian community in Acts often gathered around shared meals: take inspiration!
A second response is increasing awareness and accountability. An honest recognition of technology’s addictive design is another important step to reduce the harm it causes. We should practice greater awareness of how platforms manipulate attention, push for greater digital literacy, and put practices in place for how we can hold one another accountable.
Friends, small groups, and Church communities can create accountability structures addressing addictive digital habits. Like other addictions, phone addictions should not be faced in isolation. Scripture repeatedly emphasises communal accountability: “Carry each other’s burdens” [44]. Small groups could discuss screen time, pornography addiction, and social media habits – teaching restoration for those “caught in sin” [45].
For many Christians, the path to digital freedom starts with the honesty that technology has become an idol. Support one another in naming these struggles and taking practical steps towards a response. Digital habits can constitute life-controlling behaviours, from which Christ came “to set the prisoner free” [46].
Finally, we should commit to Phone-Free Spaces. It has only been since 2012 that a phone-based epidemic has taken hold; this can be reversed. Phone-free spaces counter the fragmentation of attention and social anxiety by allowing people to reset their attention without constant interruption and creating spaces that prevent dependency before it becomes entrenched [47].
Although Christians are motivated by distinct theological foundations, this should be done in collaboration with non-Christians based on shared concerns about human flourishing. As Augustine described, we can pursue a “common object of love” in the earthly city [48]. Schools are an important space to become phone-free. Implementing phone-free policies creates environments where sustained attention and face-to-face relationships can flourish. Such restrictions require collective action from parents to press teachers and politicians to create spaces where young people can develop attentional muscles free from constant digital interruption.
Churches could encourage “tech Sabbaths” and encourage in-person attendance over joining online. The Hebrew concept of holiness (kadosh) means “set apart” or “separated.” When life becomes entirely virtual, it collapses into an undifferentiated blur. Christian practice of digital-Sabbaths supports meaningful relationships with God and one another without the distractions of screens.
Individuals should create device-free zones during devotion time. Creating spaces without digital interruption helps us to hear God’s “still small voice” [49]. By recognising technology’s role as a rival deity competing for our worship, and taking collective action across these three dimensions, Christians can create spaces to better love God and neighbour with undivided attention in an increasingly distracted age.
How will you respond?
“…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” [50]
References
[1] Wu, T. (2016) The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads. New York: Knopf.
[2] Ebsworth, J., Johns, S., Dodson, M., (2021), 'Surveillance capitalism: the hidden costs of the digital revolution', Cambridge Papers, 30.2.
[3] McLeod, A. (2021) Attention Spans in the Digital Age. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
[4] Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster.
[5] Tweedie, S. (2015) 'The world's first smartphone, Simon, was created 15 years before the iPhone', Business Insider, 14 June. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-first-smartphone-simon-launched-before-iphone-2015-6 (Accessed: 11 May 2025).
[6] Andreassen, C.S. (2015) 'Online social network site addiction: A comprehensive review', Current Addiction Reports, 2(2), pp. 175-184.
[7] Birch, J. (2024) The Attention Crisis: How Technology Reshapes Human Focus. New York: Oxford University Press.
[8] Barnett, G. (2022) Digital Extraction: The Hidden Cost of Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[9] Microsoft Research (2015) Attention Spans: Consumer Insights. Redmond: Microsoft Corporation.
[10] Carr, N. (2010) The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
[11] Harris, T. (2021) The Extraction: How Our Attention Is Harvested and Sold. New York: Penguin Random House.
[12] Louv, R. (2019) Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. New York: Algonquin Books.
[13] Children's Commissioner England (2023) 'A lot of it is actually just abuse': Young people and pornography. London: Children's Commissioner's Office.
[14] Hanson, E. (2022) Pornography and Harm: New Research and Psychological Insights. London: Routledge.
[15] Jenkins, P. (2018) A History of Pornography: From the Ancient World to the Present. London: Reaktion Books.
[16] ITV News (2025) ‘VPN downloads spike as UK introduces age checks for adult online content’, ITV News, 28 July. Available at: https://www.itv.com/news/2025-07-28/vpn-downloads-spike-as-uk-introduces-age-checks-for-adult-online-content (Accessed: 12 May 2026).
[17] BBC 5 Live (2019), 'Women’s Poll – 21st November 2019', Savanta ComRes. Available at: https://comresglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Final-BBC-5-Live-Tables_211119cdh.pdf (Accessed: 14 May 2025).
[18] Haidt, J. (2024) The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. New York: Penguin Press.
[19] The Anxious Generation (2025), 'The Evidence'. Available at: https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence (Accessed: 12 May 2025).
[20] Exodus 20:3
[21] Mark 12:30
[22] O'Donovan, O. (1994) Resurrection and Moral Order: An Outline for Evangelical Ethics. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press.
[23] Carr, N. (2010) The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
[24] Matthew 14:30
[25] Mark 4:19, 24
[26] 1 Kings 19:9-11
[27] 1 Kings 19:12
[28] Williams, R. (2018) Being Human: Bodies, Minds, Persons. London: SPCK.
[29] Willard, D. (1998) The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. New York: HarperOne.
[30] Galatians 4:8
[31] Matthew 6:24
[32] Crouch, A. (2017) The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.
[33] Matthew 6:21
[34] Mark 12:31
[35] Trueman, C. (2020) The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Wheaton: Crossway.
[36] Luke 9:23
[37] Bonhoeffer, D. (1954) Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community. Translated by J.W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row.
[38] Exodus 20:17
[39] John Paul II (2006) Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. Boston: Pauline Books & Media.
[40] Galatians 6:2
[41] Romans 12:15
[42] Revelation 22:4
[43] Matthew 6:21
[44] Galatians 6:2
[45] Galatians 6:1
[46] Luke 4:18
[47] Haidt, J. (2024) The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. New York: Penguin Press.
[48] Augustine (2003) City of God. Translated by H. Bettenson. London: Penguin Classics.
[49] 1 Kings 19:12
[50] John 8:36
Further Reading
The Loneliness of the Digitally Connected
Surveillance Capitalism: the hidden costs of the digital revolution
