Our attention spans are now shorter than a goldfish’s, Hannah Maxwell tells us before launching into an autobiographical tale of their time in strategic communications. It’s not clear at first what this has to do with TikTok brainrot, but Turn Your Fucking Phones Off slowly brings together its disparate elements, revealing each strand of the dystopian web in which every single one of us is currently caught. Strategic communications, we learn, is corporate speak for propaganda, and our feeds are filled with it: paid influencers, fake brands, bots. And we aren’t only being influenced to buy things; we are being influenced to hate each other.

Turn Your Fucking Phones Off is a remarkably empathetic work. A topic that could have felt scolding becomes an inspiring call to action in Maxwell’s capable hands. It helps that they are aware of their own susceptibility to the algorithm’s machinations. The show is structured in a way that both aids our internet-fried brains and brings us closer together, with scene transitions becoming group karaoke sessions and games of charades. Maxwell’s optimism is a breath of fresh air amid the daily doomscrolling drudge. They remind us that we can resist the endless flood of outrage and hatred. What we have to do is right there in the title. 

Turn Your Fucking Phones Off, Summerhall, until 31 August, 3.40pm; picture: Lukasz Izdebski.