The attention economy at home in : the main line · 342

This is not a crusade against technology. It is a warning about attention as the raw material of attachment — as scarce now as sleep in the first year. Classic still-face research showed infants distress when a responsive adult suddenly goes blank. Phone scrolling can recreate micro still-faces many times an evening. Toddlers escalate; older children stop bidding or copy the scroll.

Behaviour labelled “attention seeking” is often attention needing. Punishment for bids trains quieter loneliness. More conflicts at transitions, flatter play, meals without conversation, and bedtime battles when the day’s connection quota was unpaid. Couples also erode — co-parenting warmth thins when both adults are half-present.

Children may prefer devices because devices answer instantly. The home then competes with engineered dopamine instead of offering reliable human rhythm. Teens raised on half-attention may struggle to tolerate unstructured togetherness, or may cling anxiously when a partner looks at a phone. Work cultures that glorify always-on focus bleed into parenting the same way.