NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� More than a dozen millennials gathered in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn and placed their phones in a metal colander before two hours of reading, drawing and conversation 鈥� anything but .
A similar scene played out a few miles away, in an early 20th-century cardboard box factory turned high-end office space. Nearly 20 people in their 30s stared at their cellphones for a few minutes. Then they set them down and looked at their bared palms for a while. Then those of their neighbors.
The exercise was meant to drive home the importance of paying attention to real life, not the gleaming little screens that have taken over our world.
A 鈥榬evolution鈥� against devices
Two decades after Steve Jobs premiered the iPhone, a small but passionate movement 鈥� with offshoots in several countries 鈥� is rebelling against the omnipresent screen.
鈥淭he products have become more insidious and more extractive, exploitative,鈥� said Dan Fox, 38, who hosted the house gathering. Members of the nascent movement 鈥渨ant to start a revolution,鈥� he said.
But can an 鈥渁ttention activism鈥� movement of and members break free of ? The raw numbers say no. But cultural changes start small, and the rebellion is growing against what many call 鈥渉uman fracking.鈥�
Apple and other Big Tech firms say they’ve taken steps to help users reduce time spent on their devices, including features that track usage and a less enticing gray mode.
鈥楧umb phones鈥� provide a low-tech alternative
Activists say it’s not enough.
鈥淭hey want to take down Big Tech,鈥� says Fox, a stand-up comedian who works in marketing for Brooklyn-based Light Phone, one of several 鈥渄umb phones鈥� with only basic functionality.
Unlike most modern products, the company boasts of its phones鈥� lack of features, like 鈥渟ocial media, clickbait news, email, an internet browser, or any other anxiety-inducing infinite feed.鈥�
Fox was inspired to join the movement when he attended a 2015 concert at Radio City Music Hall. It felt as if everyone in the audience was filming the concert on their phones instead of immersing themselves in the music.
鈥淚 realized the phones are literally getting in the way of the things I love,鈥� Fox said.
Mobile internet access has so thoroughly permeated modern life that one of the few places in the world where it鈥檚 not readily available is , where authorities during in January.
A growing backlash
D. Graham Burnett is a historian of science at Princeton University and one of the authors of 鈥淎ttensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement,鈥� making him a pillar of the growing backlash against the corporate harvesting of human attention.
Along with MS NOW host Chris Hayes鈥� bestselling 鈥淭he Sirens鈥� Call: How Attention Became the World鈥檚 Most Endangered Resource,鈥� his work is part of a growing body of literature calling for people to move away from screens and pay attention to life.
Burnett says the 鈥渁ttention liberation movement鈥� is about throwing off the yoke of time-sucking apps. People 鈥渘eed to rewild their attention. Their attention is the fullness of their relationship to the world.鈥�
The people in Fox’s living room started the evening by introducing themselves, as if at a support group.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 feel good about my relationship with my phone. I feel like an addict,鈥� said Riley Soloner, who teaches theatrical clowning and works as an usher at Carnegie Hall. He arrived with a backpack full of books 鈥� the paper kind.
Other chapters have cropped up around the world
Across the Atlantic Ocean in the Netherlands, people filed into a neo-Gothic cathedral late last month for a meeting of the Offline Club.
鈥淲e create our events and gatherings with different themes. One of them is connecting with yourself through creative activities or reading or writing or puzzling,鈥� said co-founder Ilya Kneppelhout. 鈥淩eally something that makes you slow down and reflect, go inward.鈥�
There are several dozen 鈥渁ttention activism鈥� groups across the United States and Canada, and the movement has also cropped up in Spain, Italy, Croatia, France and England. Burnett said he expects it to spread further.
Members of Oberlin College’s Harkness Housing and Dining Co-op decided to run their organization without emails and spreadsheets in January, expanding to a ban on technology in the shared spaces of the 1950s brick building.
鈥淧eople expressed a feeling of relief about not needing to be checking their emails, or checking their texts or checking the news. That allowed us to spend a lot of time just talking to each other,鈥� said junior Ozzie Frazier, 21.
During the monthlong co-op project, Frazier said, people started checking out CD鈥檚 from the library, and enjoying arts and crafts nights, live music and the board game Bananagrams.
鈥淎 lot of people felt very connected to each other. Not having the devices gave them some kind of mental space,鈥� Frazier said.
Wilhelm Tupy read 鈥淎ttensity鈥� after stumbling across it at a Vienna bookstore and visited the School of Radical Attention in Brooklyn鈥檚 DUMBO neighborhood on a trip last month.
He felt he had found something that united his sporting career as a judo champion 鈥� with its need for focused 鈥渇low鈥� 鈥� and his postretirement work as a business consultant.
鈥淒iscipline is not enough nowadays,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 becoming more and more difficult to keep the attention and to keep the focus on goals and whatever you want to achieve and want to do.鈥�
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