The Attention Experiment®
A simple way to spend less time lost on your phone.
Notice the Scroll Loop.
Choose what happens next.
Start with seven days and see what you notice.
Creator, The Attention Experiment
Notice the Scroll Loop.
Choose what happens next.
Start with seven days and see what you notice.
Creator, The Attention Experiment
Often, just before you reach for your phone, there's a doorway. Tap the ones below you recognise.
Now try catching them as they happen. Start with seven days and see what you notice.
Start the experiment →Every single time I open an app,Christina
I'm asking myself what doorway is this?
You pick up the phone.
The loop takes over. That's the design working.
You say it: I'm in a Scroll Loop. That sentence is the skill.
You've moved from automatic to aware. Now decide what you'll do to step out of the loop.
Then feet on the floor, a few breaths, and decide what's next. That pause is where your attention comes back to you.
The pupils were captivated throughout, and posed some thought-provoking questions on this crucial issue affecting young people today.Nikola Bowerman · Head of Pupil Wellbeing, Sherborne School
Try the experiment yourself for free, or invite me to your school or workplace.
And with your family. Start with seven days and see what you notice.
Start the experiment →I come into your school for assemblies, workshops, staff CPD and a seven-day review.
Invite me to your school →I run sessions for teams on phones, focus and AI, online or in the room.
Invite me to work →Notice when useful prompting becomes a Prompt Loop and thinking starts to disappear.
Explore AI and attention →I've now gotten into the habit of leaving my phone in other rooms, where it was kind of attached to my hand.
It felt like a game. It made me want to look after myself more.
It’s really catchy! I found myself opening an app and I was like, why am I opening it? Don’t really wanna look. So yeah, it works!
As a teenager I find this really useful. Scroll loop notice choose is now my way of recognising when I am in a scroll loop or been on my phone for a long time.
I absolutely love the conscious connection that it built through just a day or two's use.
It was very helpful in bringing my awareness into the moment of picking up my phone and sensing into what was really going on for me. And then, aha! Choice.
It is possible to stop the doom scroll and reliance on my phone.
Made me feel better about my usage and hopeful.
The Attention Experiment is an independent, evolving project, shaped through real participation, reflection and what we learn together.
Phones are part of how young people connect. Simply telling them to stop is not the whole answer.
Ofcom, 2025 ↗That’s why, in The Attention Experiment, noticing is the skill.
Virgin Media O2, 2026 ↗The research behind The Attention Experiment →What is attention literacy? →What is digital wellbeing? →
They’ll notice the Scroll Loop, and know how to step out of it.
The Attention Experiment gives pupils a simple, memorable way to notice when they're in a Scroll Loop and choose what happens next, in school, at home and everywhere in between. It's built on metacognition and self-regulation.
A family that can catch the Scroll Loop together.
Most parents are guiding children through a digital world they're caught in too. Screen-time arguments rarely help anyone understand what is pulling their attention. The Attention Experiment is something you can try together.
Ask your school about a parent talk →My son is aware of it now.
The same method, for the pull of AI.For pupils, staff and teams using AI every day.
Are you in a prompt loop? →Stay with the work you sat down to do.
I run sessions for teams, online or in person. We explore how phones and AI pull on attention at work, and practise a simple way to catch it in the moment.
Before this week I was unconscious of my relationship with my phone and now I have awareness so I decide about scrolling.
Grounding, inspiring, safe.
This was so inspiring and just being able to speak openly has been really valuable.
Thank you. I really needed this.
Thank you so much! I'm already noticing more.
This is one of the biggest topics of our time, yet there seems to be very little practical support for adults or young people alike. Keeping up with the research is much of my working life. I want to put what I am learning into the hands of the people who need it and can use it.
I feel the pull of the scroll too. So I built The Attention Experiment as a simple, body-led, evidence-informed experiment that anyone can use, including me. No one wants another screen-time lecture. What helps is the sequence itself, Scroll · Loop · Notice · Choose, and an invitation to notice when you're in a Scroll Loop.
Katie Brockhurst spent twenty-five years working inside social media, before turning to what it's doing to our attention and wellbeing. She is a qualified Digital Wellbeing Coach (dip/ICF), trained with Europass Teacher Academy, and leads the digital team for The Common at Glastonbury Festival. Her written evidence to Parliament is published in the Government's review of AI and EdTech. She is the author of the Social Media for a New Age books, works with schools on digital wellbeing, and is the founder of The Attention Experiment.
Author of Social Media for a New Age When you catch yourself scrolling, say this.
Noticing changes something.
Know someone who'd like to try it too?
