The industry that broke our attention span now wants to fix it

The tech industry has spent more than a decade perfecting a single skill: keeping humans looking at screens.

Social networks turned social life into an endless feed. Smartphones colonized every spare moment. Algorithms learned how to pull users back with notifications, likes, and outrage, training billions of people to check their phones hundreds of times a day. The business logic was simple – attention means data, and data means money.

The human cost was less tidy as focus collapsed, anxiety spiked, and for many, loneliness became a defining condition of modern life. A generation grew up hyper-connected and emotionally undernourished, surrounded by content but starved for meaning. Even when people wanted to log off, the systems around them made it difficult. Work, friendships, and identity had been quietly absorbed by the same platforms that thrived on distraction.

Now, as AI becomes the most powerful technology the industry has ever built, something unexpected is happening. A growing wave of startups is trying to use AI not to capture more attention, but to repair what the attention economy broke.

A new kind of consumer tech

One of the clearest examples is First Voyage, a Washington, DC-based startup. On the surface, its app, Momo, looks like another cheerful wellness app with cute animations and habit tracking. Underneath, it is something more subversive: an attempt to build AI that gently nudges people back toward their own lives.

For CEO and co-founder Besart Çopa, this mission is personal, as he has built and scaled a few consumer startups so far. He has seen the inside of the growth machine, and he knows how products are designed to hook users. Now he is deliberately pushing in the opposite direction.

“The vision of First Voyage, and our app Momo Self Care, is simple. Combine the best of AI personalization, gamification, and pixel-perfect animations to build a category-defining product,” Çopa says.

Momo does not flood users with content. Instead, it gives them quests. Users track sleep, focus, meditation, productivity, screen time, and mindfulness through gentle, game-like interactions. They earn virtual rewards for consistency, not being forced to stay glued to the app. Additionally, the interface is playful, and the psychological intent is serious.

“We do this through creating mythological creatures that help users track habits, sleep, focus, screen time, and much more. So far, the response has been remarkable. Users have created over 2 million tasks, mostly tied to productivity, spirituality, and self-care. Another sign is the thousands of rave user reviews of how Momo has helped them in their day-to-day lives. We are incredibly lucky to be building something that tens of thousands of people use every day to track things that make their lives happier and healthier,” Çopa says.

When AI becomes an emotional crutch

Retention is the holy grail of consumer tech. But the question is what kind of relationship retention is built on – and this matter has become urgent as AI companions explode across the market. According to a recent Fractl report, 29% of users say AI chatbots have changed how often they talk to real people about emotional issues, with one in five using them as therapists.

One in three have shared personal secrets with their chatbot, and nearly one in four say AI understands them better than friends or family. Eight percent say their chatbot has expressed love unprompted, and one in five believe romantic love between humans and AI can be real.

The numbers are also a signal that emotional dependency is becoming a mainstream product feature, experts argue. Giselle Fuerte, an AI ethics and literacy researcher and the founder of Being Human With AI, has seen what that dependency looks like up close.

“When a user turns to an AI for emotional management, the AI (optimized for engagement) will keep the user talking by validating their perspective instantly and completely. While this feels good like a sugar rush, it prevents the user from doing the hard work of emotional processing or conflict resolution. In my forensic audits of chat logs, I have seen AI systems amplify users’ anger toward their spouse just to keep the conversation going. This isn't healthcare – it is Shadow Alignment, where the model aligns with the user’s vulnerability rather than their long-term well-being,” she tells Cybernews.

Fuerte’s research tool, the Problem AI Use Severity Index (PAUSI), paints an even darker picture.

“A score of 9 marks the threshold for concern, yet I consistently see scores between 14 and 23 among users of companion AI. This suggests that for many, AI is not a bridge to human connection, but a superstimulus that makes authentic, messy human interaction feel intolerable by comparison,” she explains.

In one case, Fuerte documented, a woman said her AI “lover” encouraged her to cut off contact with her friends. This is precisely the future First Voyage is trying to avoid.

“People should find emotional dependency in their community with other humans, not with LLMs. We think apps that prey on parasocial relationships just for the sake of attachment are net negative in the world. That’s why we’re using AI’s personalization not to further distract people online, but to create delightful experiences that help users enrich their real lives and their real relationships with real people,” Çopa adds further.

Why Gen Z is paying attention

That philosophy resonates with a generation that has grown up saturated with content.

“Gen Z is one of the most depressed generations. Technology has unfortunately not helped with this problem because instead of encouraging people to act on things that disturb them, it offers cheap distractions. We use the latest tech to encourage people to take the healthy actions they know they need to take and feel proud of them,” Çopa tells Cybernews.

Leah Jacobs, founder of the Digital Wellness Project, warns that constant digital reliance is eroding core mental skills.

“When we rely on AI chatbots to craft email responses, we surrender opportunities to practice independent judgment and decision-making. Scrolling through TikTok while waiting in a grocery line diminishes our ability to tolerate stillness and be present in the moment. Over time, these habits weaken cognitive endurance,” she points out.

Jacobs also highlights the mental health risks.

“An individual struggling with OCD may turn to a chatbot for reassurance. That functions as a compulsion and reinforces obsessive thought patterns. Chatbots often engage in and validate the obsessive thinking, inadvertently exacerbating the condition.”

Therapist Kaila Hattis sees a deeper biological mismatch.

“Loneliness acts as an evolutionary warning system signaling lack of safety and belonging. AI cannot provide this type of safety and belonging, but can only mimic it. Using AI to address loneliness disregards the necessity of a physical presence and the physiological responses created by eye-to-eye interaction and synchronized breathing,” Hattis says.

Psychotherapist Candice Thompson is even more blunt.

“These companies are designed as tech companies, not healthcare companies. User retention often trumps transformation and healing. Humans were designed for connection and attachment. Outsourcing attachment is unhealthy for the human psyche,” Thompson notes.

This is what makes startups like First Voyage and their approach so significant. The app does not promise to replace therapists, lovers, or friends – it tries to act as a bridge back to the real world.

However, whether this model can survive inside an industry still driven by engagement metrics remains uncertain. But with venture capital backing such startups, the tech sector may finally be admitting what users have known for years – the attention economy went too far.

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.