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Paper short abstract:

This paper draws on original ethnographic research on ADHD in online and offline contexts alongside theoretical material from philosophy, psychology, psychoanalysis and anthropology to offer a framing of the concept of attention with particular focus on implications for ethnography.

Paper long abstract:

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has seemingly risen in prominence over the last few decades with adult medical diagnoses in the United States increasing 126% during the period 2016-17 (Chung et al 2019). Non-clinical engagement with the psychiatric category also appears to have increased with #ADHD being the 7th most popular public health hashtag on TikTok in October 2021 (Zenone et al 2021). This paper unpacks the psychiatric category of ADHD and its relation to the emergence of the attention economies and algorithmic agency. Through original ethnographic research in online and offline settings, and engagement with philosophical, psychological, psycho-analytic and anthropological theories of attention, ADHD is framed as a vernacular anthropology—that is, a theory of the existential and psychosocial conditions human being and becoming in the contemporary world. The seemingly increasing resonance of the category of ADHD with many people navigating complex digital realities offers a window into the relationship of the psychosocial, existential, and phenomenological conditions of human experience entangled with novel attention economies and digital technologies. Through this analysis a theoretical framing of the concept of attention more broadly will be offered with particular focus on the implications of such a reframing for contemporary anthropology and ethnography.