The Gift of Attention

Sermon: March 29, 2026 . Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito

There is a popular phrase people toss around when concerned about their diet. “You are what you eat.” This phrase that became popular in America in the 1930’s had been floating around Europe since the 1820’s. And it makes perfect sense, the idea that if you eat healthily you will be healthy. This direct correlation is easy for people to understand and in our modern era, we have taken the concept beyond food intake into non-material concepts of consumption. For example, no one wants to live or work in a “toxic” environment. Even though we don’t consume emotional toxicity, we don’t want to swim in its waters and tend to remove ourselves from environments that might rub off on us, or at the least affect our mental well being. However, there is one thing we continue to consume despite how unhealthy it can be for our mental health: the news. 

Despite the toll it takes on our energy, our emotional well being, and our mental health, we continue to consume the news because we feel we have to. It’s our duty as citizens. So how do we find the balance between media intake and health? How do we not become what we consume? 

Paying attention is a powerful act. Paying attention to something, by default, makes it important. It gives it value and it encourages others to look in the same direction. Horses wear blinders while working to keep their focus on the task ahead. Without their blinders they may be distracted by something in their peripheral vision. Horses are known to spook easily. Sometimes humans wear metaphorical blinders to ignore what they don’t want to see or hear. But when the truth isn’t directly in front of you and exists in the periphery, wearing blinders can be a dangerous practice. It’s important for you to keep your view of the world wide, so you can discern the difference between truth and distraction. Then, while keeping your eyes focused on the truth, you can let the distractions fade into the periphery. Determining what really matters is up to you. 

When my children were small, they would constantly say, “Mom, look!” I probably heard that 50 times a day as my young children tested whether they truly mattered. Babies' needs are tended to almost immediately, but as children grow we spend less and less time paying attention to them in an effort not only to regain our own lives, but to also help them learn that there are times when you just have to do things on your own. And yet, “Mom look!” rang out from every nook of my home for years on end while my children tested my attention and thus their importance to me. 

We live in an age where the media is vying for our attention at unprecedented rates. We have graduated far beyond catchy newspaper headlines and now have social media with clickbait photos and videos, pop up ads, and algorithms that determine what they think we want to see. Nancy Gibbs, professor at Harvard and past editor-in-chief of Time magazine says, “We are living through a historic media transformation as consequential as the invention of the printing press.” She says we are experiencing an “information emergency” not only because there is so much circulating misinformation, but also because of where people get their news, the influence of AI, and the mistrust of public institutions. 

In a bit of divine timing, PewResearch.org just released statistics based on studies from July 2025 that confirm that 45% of US adults listen to religious audio programming and that 40% of those people get their news from that same media. That’s 18% of people in our country that are getting information about news and current events from religious radio stations and podcasts that spew their opinion along with every update. Different research from Reuters Institute in 2022 found that 42% of Americans say they actively avoid the news. After surveying 93,000 readers in 46 different countries, they found that we have one of the highest news-avoidance rates in the world. So, 18% are getting their news from religious media and 42% actively avoid the news. PewResearch also says that 38% of Americans trust FOX news, which the FCC has no authority over since it is not publicly broadcast. Even if we assume some (or all) crossover between the religious media and Fox news, that leaves only about 20% of Americans who are seeking news (if they seek it at all) from hopefully objective sources. 

It gets worse. 

Out of 46 countries, the US ranks last when it comes to trust in the media. We only trust our media about half as much as the rest of the world. The countries that tend to trust their media have strong public media services. So here we are, in an age where the media is competing for your attention because where you look is where the advertisement money flows. Just ask any company paying $8-10 million to secure an ad spot during the super bowl. They know the power of our attention. Your eyes make money, unfortunately not for you, but for the company creating the media you’re looking at. This is why attention is a gift. 

Instead of equating news consumption with doomscrolling, instead of allowing depression to seep in because we feel it’s our civic duty to be outraged by the latest White House antics, let’s reframe our attention to the news as a gift we choose to bestow. If your attention was a gift, how would it change the way you consume media in your everyday life? Would you consume more of it or less of it? Would you make different choices? Here’s some information to help you decide. It turns out that for every page of a mainstream news website you view, that news outlet makes about 3-5 cents in ad revenue. The more visits a website receives, the higher the advertisers will pay to be on it, and the more money the website makes. So if you read an article or watch a video on BBC.com or NPR.org or wherever you like to get your information, you are gifting those organizations a nickel every time you click. Now, a nickel isn’t a lot of money, but it adds up and social media makes much more money off of your attention. Facebook is estimated to make over $26 a month off of each American user. Meanwhile, the algorithms on social media sites are narrowing your world view with every click as you sink deeper into an echo chamber that throws more and more of the same thing your way, sacrificing breadth and balanced perspectives. 

It’s a neat trick, to be able to cultivate one’s own online universe by clicking what interests you, and while I am now an expert in several life hacks including how to grow potatoes in laundry baskets and how to fold a Victorian love letter into what’s called a puzzle purse, I am quite concerned with the things that I am not being exposed to because the social media gods have already decided that it doesn’t interest me. 

So, what can be done? We can all try to spend less time on social media and more time reading articles on news organizations we want to support, but that feels like work. There are reasons we have drifted toward this new AI influenced consumption of media. Our fast paced lives have adjusted to consuming media in fast paced ways where we click, scroll, and listen in short bursts of gifted attention. We can only pay attention to one thing at a time and time is limited. Every instance that my children yelled “Mom, look!” I left behind what I was doing to give my attention to my children. 

It’s important to know that your reality and even the truth can be shaped by the repeated information you receive. There is something called the Illusory Truth Effect, in which anything you hear repeatedly, even information you know to be false, will start to have a ring of truth. The loudest voice, repeated the most often, is the voice most likely to be believed, regardless of truth, because repetition increases the perception of validity. The sheer number of times people have heard the words, “fake news” when actual facts are presented, is why our country is ranked last in trusting the media. Sadly, it’s not because the most learned among us know that there’s misinformation out there. It’s because people have been told that actual factual reporting is fake news enough times to have changed the cultural perception of what can and can’t be trusted. 

I’m sure there are many of you who already feel confident in what news sources can and can’t be trusted and are able to discern the difference between fact and opinion. Now that you have done that, it’s time to curate your media world to reflect not only truth, but breadth.

The importance of truth is plain to see, but how much of it floats across the screens of your devices each day? I encourage you to brainstorm some non-biased news sources, search for them on your different social media accounts, and follow them, even if you don’t go to social media for the news. The more trusted sources you have in your feeds, the more likely you’ll be delivered even more trusted content when the algorithms readjust. Besides that, remember that every like and every follow is literally a gift of monetary support for the media companies that you want to keep reporting. It doesn’t take too long to make sure that you are counted among the supporters of those who intend to keep public media sources afloat. 

Next, if you listen to the news, make sure you hear more than just what you’re looking for. For example, I have recently been listening to the podcast NPR News Now while driving. They produce six 5-minute news briefings each day and only keep the three most recent up on streaming services. They really pack those five minutes with varied stories. One of the episodes from Friday featured these 8 stories:

Funding for Homeland Security passes through the House

Ukraine & Saudi Arabia sign agreement 

Update on Iran attacks and Straight of Hormuz

Global oil trades and price of oil

Update on stocks on wallstreet

Deadly landslides in East Africa

Playstation 5 video games costs rise

Tiger Woods is arrested for a DUI

It’s a quick-paced update that informs without opinion and covers a variety of topics, which helps me keep some balance between the world crises that often dominate my mind, and everything else in the world that hasn’t stopped happening. Keeping a wide view of the world helps us maintain a balanced perspective and helps inform us of all the optional places for our focused attention. It is also a reminder that although we may want everyone to focus on what we believe is most important, there are many needs in this world and it is heartening to see others working on issues outside my normal scope of focus. Many of you know my trench analogy. For those of you who don’t, I consider myself an “in the trenches” person. I prefer to work alongside others so I can understand the effort and the work being done and we can share in a common goal. However, I don’t expect others to want to work in the same trench I’m in. We can’t be everywhere all at once. We have to choose where we pay our attention. One of my favorite metaphorical things to do is to pop my head up out of the trench I’m in and look around. When I see my friends working in other trenches and paying attention to other causes, it helps me feel connected to humanity and not lost. 

So, breadth of information is important so we don’t end up in echo chambers. Choosing who to follow is important so that our gifts of attention are mindful and can do the most good. And following trusted news sources on your social media accounts is also a gift you can give yourself. A study out of UCDavis in 2025 found that people who follow mainstream news sources can more readily discern between fact and fiction on social media. They are more resilient to misinformation. They can more easily recognize what is actually “fake news” and they have an overall higher trust in the news, in journalists, and in news organizations.

So, the next time you visit social media, take a minute to see how many trusted news sources are present in your news feed. The next time you visit a website, remember the power of a click. If people are going to make money off of where we look, we might as well pay attention to the places we want to see thrive. We are living in a world where attention may be our greatest gift, and not just for our children every time they yell out “Mom, look!”, but for the integrity of our society. Native American Robin Wall Kimmerer says “Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”

Where will you gift your attention today? 

OTHER READINGS FOR REFLECTION:

The Gift of Full Attention

by Mike Sansome

Be near me, not just close in space,

But here in heart, in tone, in face.

Not halfway there with wandering eyes —

Real love is found when presence ties.

Put down the phone, the ticking clock,

Let silence speak and stillness talk.

I don’t need answers, plans, or proof —

Just you beneath this honest roof.

Listen with more than just your ears,

Lean in beyond the surface fears.

Catch every sigh, each hidden plea,

And show your soul is here with me.

Distraction dulls what love could spark,

It dims the light and leaves things dark.

But when you choose to be all in,

That’s when the deeper bonds begin.

So hold this moment, guard its flame,

Be fully here, not just in name.

Your presence is the rarest art —

The greatest gift? Your open heart.

A Different Kind of Attention

by Allison Fallon

When you wake up one morning and

everything you have ever loved

has left you.

When there are sirens shrieking

outside and no one lying

next to you

to say goodnight.

When all you can do is spin and swirl

another glass of whiskey,

or wine. When the

light on your phone

is yet another message

from home—

what have you

done wrong

this time?

Then.

Pay a different kind of attention.

Still your heart.

Calm your mind.

Take one deep breath in

and then out, and then in

again.

Do that

five hundred

times.

Until all you hear

is…

Come alive, my love

to what is infinite

within you, to

what you saw that night

when you held my hand

and looked into my eyes.

That light

shining back to you

from your dark past, from

your bright future.

Do you remember?

It is not that

you can achieve world peace or

make everyone happy

or even

bring your love back

home.

You can’t. We can

both stop

trying

so hard

but somewhere, there

is a bright light

to bend this dim path.

Somewhere.

Not far. Not out there

in the distance, but

close. So close.

I saw it in you.

I held your chin.

I wiped your eyes.

I told you

to look up.

Unearth that treasure,

my love. Unbind it.

Unfurl it.

What a precious,

hidden and beautiful

gift

you have been hiding all this time.