He's probably speaking figuratively when he says "stolen". I think he's referring to how we didn't really see it coming until it was too late and now a lot of people have been left without the ability to pay attention.

> Was our attention really stolen? Is this a literal claim, or just hyperbole?

It's obviously figurative... unless you believe Professor MindMiner has built a machine to *schlorp* liquidified Attention out of unsuspecting victims into his own swollen and increasingly-monomaniacal cranium.

However it's much shorter than "impaired or damaged without our informed consent by outside forces because it profits them to do so."

Well, that's funny. But I take it to mean that it was intentionally made addictive, rather than just being enjoyable.

By analogy, some people say that food is being made addictive. But I think there is a dubious difference between an addictive hamburger and just a tasty hamburger.