The Battle for Attention
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The Battle for Attention
This isn’t some conspiracy theory, any more than it’s a conspiracy theory to explain that KFC wants you to eat fried chicken. It’s simply an obvious result of the incentive structure that has been put in place and that we allow to continue. “Their business model,” he says, “is screen time, not life time.”
Johann Hari • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again
Way back in 1971 Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize–winning social scientist, observed, “In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information c
... See moreKevin Kelly • The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
Unfortunately, advertising has been ingrained into the internet as the basic model for so long and to such an extent that it’s hard to envision online life without the systematic manipulation of attention and all its evils. So we’re bound to wind up here, at the bitter end of “content.” Which is a good excuse to withdraw deeper into books, movies, ... See more
Freddie deBoer • The Bitter End of "Content"
Attention is your ability to go out and get the eyes and ears of a group of people without working linearly for it. Attention is not cheap. Attention is expensive and only getting more expensive.