About Civic Attention

What We Do

Much of our modern digital world — especially today’s most popular social media platforms — is engineered to hijack our attention, addicting us to a firehose of algorithmically-curated content and manipulating us for profit.

As a result, it’s never been harder to focus on the people and things that we know matter most. We’re now more isolated from each other than ever before. Anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders are on the rise — particularly among young Americans. Common sense is unraveling, consensus is collapsing, and the pathologies of the internet increasingly shape our lives offline.

Civic Attention is a new non-profit organization that conducts research and thought leadership with the goal of addressing the exploitation of our individual and collective attention.

We are young people ourselves and we feel these pressures, too. We publish original analysis and perspective here on our Substack.

Our Team

  • Hannah Koizumi

    CO-DIRECTOR

    Hannah’s expertise lies at the crossroads of data, civic engagement, and organizing. She graduated with a BA in Public Policy in 2021 and a MS in Data Science in 2024, both from the University of Virginia. The common thread among her work is civic collaboration — from nonpartisan civic engagement at UVa and DoSomething, to bipartisan efforts to strengthen American democracy at the Leadership Now Project and Center for Ballot Freedom.

  • Hugh Jones

    CO-DIRECTOR

    Hugh works at the intersection of technology, media, and democracy. He holds a B.A. in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia, where he wrote his thesis on making social media work better for democracy. After graduating in 2021, Hugh helped lead communications and digital strategy at The Welcome Party & WelcomePAC. He is a self-taught software developer and previously interned on the AI ethics and governance team at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Relevant Content

  • The Anti-Social Century

    By Derek Thompson
    The Atlantic

    Read It

  • Demystifying Social Media Addiction Litigation

    By Clay Calvert
    American Enterprise Institute

    Read It

  • Dopamine Expert: Doing This Once A Day Fixes Your Dopamine!

    Dr. Anna Lembke
    The Diary Of A CEO

    Watch It

  • Why Brain Rot Will Doom Gen Alpha

    The Infographics Show

    Watch It

  • Why Everything is Becoming a Game

    By Gurwinder Bhogal
    The Prism

    Read It

  • The New Media Goliaths

    Renée DiResta
    Noema Magazine

    Read It