Pay Attention
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Before we start, what is the last thing you scrolled past today that you wish you had not? No judgment, we have all got one.
Where did you do most of your reading of this one, and did you have to put your phone in another room to get through it?
The book is called Pay Attention. When was the last time you felt genuinely, restfully attentive to something, and what made that moment possible?
Pakman writes about how technology widens the distance between people. Is there someone you have quietly drifted from because of what the feeds did to one of you, and do you still miss them?
Which part of the book made you exhale with relief, as in finally someone said it out loud, and which part made your stomach drop a little?
Pakman makes his living in political media, the very machine he is examining. Did his willingness to point the lens at himself make you trust him more, and how did that land for you emotionally?
By the time you closed the book, did you feel more tender toward the people you disagree with, or more tired? Sit with whichever one is true.
The later chapters move toward what we might actually do. Without spoiling where he lands, what is one small, unglamorous change you could make this month that you would not be embarrassed to report back on?