Context aware backlighting techniques include determining a focal point of a display space based on a user display context. An example backlight controller for selective backlight control of a monitor includes interface circuitry, memory, machine-readable instructions, and processor circuitry to execute the machine readable instructions to obtain a user display context relative to the monitor, the user display context based on sensor data, the sensor data to include user proximity data; determine whether to enable or disable the selective backlighting for the monitor based on the user display context; cause first backlight sections of the monitor to output at a first light intensity based on the user display context; and cause second backlight sections of the monitor to output at least one of (a) the first light intensity or (b) a second light intensity that is different than the first light intensity based on the determination.