What is attention literacy?
Attention literacy is understanding how digital technology is designed to capture and hold our attention, what that does to our brains and bodies, and having the skills to notice it happening and choose what to do next.
Young people are growing up inside systems built to keep them scrolling. Most are taught how to stay safe online. Very few are taught how these systems work on their attention, or how to get their attention back.
That's the gap attention literacy fills. I believe it should be foundational knowledge in every school, for pupils and for the adults around them.
Why media literacy isn't enough
Media literacy and online safety matter. Knowing how to spot fake news, protect your privacy and report harmful content is essential.
But knowing that algorithms exist isn't the same as understanding what they do to you. According to Ofcom's 2025 research, around six in ten children aged 8 to 17 know that apps use algorithms to decide what to show them. Far fewer are taught why a feed is so hard to put down, what it does to their focus, or how to notice when they've been pulled in.
When I talk with young people and adults about social media and AI, I see a mix of confusion, excitement, fear, frustration and genuine curiosity. What I don't see is enough understanding of how these technologies work, the business models behind them, and how they affect our minds, bodies and wellbeing.
The four parts of attention literacy
1. How platforms are designed
Understanding the business model: capture attention, collect data, make money from both. Why feeds have no stopping point, why notifications arrive when they do, and why our wellbeing was never the design priority.
2. What happens in the brain and body
The basics of the neuroscience of attention. Why personalised feeds pull us into a dreamlike state, what happens to focus when we switch between apps, and how the body signals that we've had enough.
3. How AI changes our thinking
What happens when we hand our thinking to AI, why chatbots can feel like friends, and the difference between a tool that supports your thinking and one designed to keep you engaged.
4. The skill of noticing and choosing
The practical part. Being able to notice, in the moment, when you've been pulled in, and to make a different choice. This is agency, and it can be taught.
What happens in the classroom
When I delivered The Attention Experiment at Sherborne School, staff told me one of their biggest challenges was that students used their school devices in exactly the same way as their personal ones. Checking emails, installing games, getting pulled into distractions, on the device they were meant to be focusing on.
So I taught a session to Year 10 boys on what happens in the brain when you focus on a task without interruption, compared with what happens when you break off to check a message or switch apps. It's simple, foundational knowledge. And it's missing, not just for students, but for many of the schools rolling out digital tools.
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
AI makes this more urgent
Schools are now bringing AI tools into classrooms, often from the same companies whose platforms have been criticised for how they hold young people's attention.
Early research is raising real questions. A study from MIT Media Lab found that people who used ChatGPT to write essays showed lower brain engagement, and many struggled to recall what they'd just written. The researchers called this "cognitive debt". A 2025 study by Michael Gerlich found that people who used AI tools more often scored lower on critical thinking, with handing over thinking to AI (known as cognitive offloading) as the key link, and younger people most affected.
My teacher at the Consciously Digital Institute, Dr Anastasia Dedyukhina, describes how technology business models are shifting: from the attention economy, which captures what you see, to the intention economy, which captures what you want, to the affection economy, which captures how you feel.
Teaching young people to use AI "safely and responsibly" isn't enough if they don't understand what these systems are designed to do. Explore AI and attention
Why noticing is the skill
The most practical part of attention literacy is noticing. Naming what you're doing while you're doing it is called metacognition, thinking about your own thinking, and it's where choice and self-regulation live.
Schools already know the power of this. The Education Endowment Foundation rates metacognition and self-regulation as a high-impact, low-cost approach, and recommends explicitly teaching metacognitive strategies, teachers modelling their own thinking out loud, and building metacognitive talk into the classroom. Their evidence is about learning. I believe the same principles apply to how we use our devices.
That's what The Attention Experiment does. Four words, Scroll, Loop, Notice, Choose, give pupils and staff a shared language. A teacher can say "I'm in a Scroll Loop" and put their phone down, and pupils see the skill in action. Research increasingly points towards body-based approaches, not just information-based ones, so the sequence is taught with movement and breath too. See how the method works
It starts with the adults
The teachers I work with see this as important, and they're seeing big changes in how their pupils think and behave. But many are already stretched, and struggle to manage their own attention and relationship with technology. That's not a criticism. Most of us were never taught any of this.
If digital wellbeing educators are only now catching up with the research, parents are further behind still, and the children growing up inside these systems are the least equipped of all.
What I'd like to see in every school
These are the recommendations I made in my written evidence to the House of Commons Education Committee.
Make attention literacy part of the curriculum. Teach how platforms are designed, the neuroscience of attention, and the effects of handing our thinking to AI, as core knowledge rather than one-off assemblies or guest talks.
Train teachers in how digital systems and AI work. CPD should cover not just how to use these tools, but the business models, design ethics and effects on thinking behind them, so staff can guide pupils with confidence.
Draw clear lines between learning tools and distraction. A school laptop is also a gateway to email, games, social media and chatbots. Schools need support to protect sustained attention in the classroom.
I'm one of those guest speakers, and I'd still say it: a single visit is a start, not a solution. That's why my schools programme includes staff sessions and a follow-up review, so the language keeps working after I've gone.
For a wider look at the government's plans, read my view on phone bans and the social media ban.
Questions people ask
What is attention literacy?
Attention literacy is understanding how digital technology is designed to capture and hold our attention, what that does to our brains and bodies, and having the skills to notice it happening and choose what to do next.
How is attention literacy different from media literacy?
Media literacy focuses on understanding and evaluating content, like spotting misinformation. Attention literacy focuses on how technology is designed to hold our attention, how that affects us, and how to take back some choice.
What is cognitive offloading?
It’s handing mental work, like remembering, thinking something through or writing, over to technology such as AI. Early research suggests relying on it heavily may weaken skills like critical thinking.
When should attention literacy be taught?
The earlier the better, ideally before children have their own phones and social media accounts, and continuing through secondary school as their use grows. The adults around them need it too.
Read my full written evidence to the Education Committee, published by Parliament.