Beyond Self-Control: Attention, Agency, Alignment and Distributed Responsibility in Digital Environments

Digital distraction and difficulties sustaining attention are often discussed in terms of individual self-control, discipline, decline, or deficit. In this chapter, I argue that such framings are incomplete. Drawing on research from psychology, communication science, and human-computer interaction, I conceptualise difficulties sustaining attention, disengaging when desired, and maintaining focus amid competing cues as the result of a growing misalignment between human cognitive capacities and digital environments optimised to capture attention. The chapter distinguishes changes in attentional capacity from changes in attentional contexts, arguing that concerns are better explained by intensified competition for attention than by cognitive decline. I discuss how engagement-driven business models and algorithmic curation structure attentional environments in ways that privilege continued engagement. The chapter introduces attentional alignment as a design-oriented call for supporting agency as a situated capacity. It concludes by arguing for a shift from individualised responsibility toward distributed responsibility across users, platforms, designers, and regulators.