Ethical Digital Attention: Philosophical Pathways and Barriers to More Eudemonic Digital Consumption

This article explores the role of ethical attention from an agentive digital consumer. As a distinction from the “prosumer,” I focus on the act of attending to the digital texts of other users. Using the concepts of Iris Murdoch’s just and loving attention (via Simone Weil) and Adriana Cavarero’s narratable self, I examine what digital attention can, and cannot, accomplish for a more eudemonic Internet. This is important, not because digital consumers are the most likely to do harm or because they have the most to gain, but because focusing on the individual consumer as a moral agent illuminates the risks and rewards of digitality in new ways and invites novel ethical considerations. It also brings focus to levels of resistance and empowerment within a system that is ubiquitous, has become necessary for many in society, and is trained to massify the user, even while it scrapes our intimate details.