{"product_id":"attention-and-alienation-aarushi-bhandari-9780231208208","title":"Attention and Alienation: The International Political Economy of Information and Communication Technologies","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe worldwide spread of the internet has revolutionized communication at a harrowing cost: the relentless commodification of attention. Algorithm-driven capitalism extracts profit from not only physical bodies but also the emotional and creative labor of internet users. This economic system alienates us from our inmost selves and gives us only a gnawing longing that cannot be satiated--a spiraling collective mental health crisis. The exchange is deeply unequal: we pay attention and receive alienation. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAarushi Bhandari offers a new way to understand the political economy of attention, combining quantitative analysis and personal narrative to critique the role of information and communications technologies in global society. Ranging across levels, from international development policy to online social movements through individual internet users, she examines how these technologies have fostered a host of unequal exchanges. Pervasive inequalities--between richer and poorer countries, between progressive social movements and the reactions against them, and between technological elites and the online population--now reinforce one another, with far-reaching consequences. Along the way, Bhandari shares her own journey as a chronically online millennial woman growing up among the Kathmandu elite in a dominant-caste Hindu family during the Nepali Civil War. A bold and incisive critical analysis, \u003ci\u003eAttention and Alienation\u003c\/i\u003e also considers how to reclaim the potential of the internet and design new systems that prioritize collective well-being.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Aarushi Bhandari\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0231208200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780231208208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Columbia University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/01\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Aarushi Bhandari","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46465708916991,"sku":"9780231208208","price":120.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_8a3b7511-e274-40a5-81b3-18e6bcd7e80a.jpg?v=1736347049","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/attention-and-alienation-aarushi-bhandari-9780231208208","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}