Imagine a cozy Friday afternoon - you have just sent off your last work assignment and, with a blissful smile, decided to log onto one of the social media tycoons – time for well-deserved relaxation, right?
Gripping a cup of coffee in one hand and squeezing your smartphone in another, you delve into the universe ruled by umpteen colorful pictures, sensational stories, and up-to-date news evoking all kinds of emotions available.
In less than a quarter of an hour, you have already discovered the story of the man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice, skimmed through "The Top 10 Steps to Become a Billionaire in a Year", guffawed at "23 Cats Who Look Like Potatoes" on Buzzfeed, and discovered which Money Heist character you would definitely be, based on your favorite color. Dragged into this infinite tunnel of brazenly non-stop emerging content full of non-sequiturs or irrelevant trivia, you have decided to sell your attention for close to nothing.
How valuable is human attention?
Have you ever felt the indignation buzzing inside of you as somebody suggested that you are partially a product? Yeah, me too. Well, you probably will not be delighted to hear it then, but frequently we are not even aware that your attention is continually being bought and sold in the marketplace of information. Nowadays, human attention can be described as the new currency of business. Just as the famous media theorist, Douglas Rushkoff, stated: "On Facebook, we are not the customers. We are the product."
Companies spend billions of dollars every single day attempting to direct your stare towards their logotypes, products, or services. Appealing to deeply rooted human instincts, evoking emotions and reactions through either classical conditioning or the abundance of novel marketing techniques, they maximize the benefit of your gaze sliding over their content.
Do I still have your attention?
Wonderful. Let's move onto defining the concept of the attention economy then.
Attention economy
One of the most prevalent definitions of the economy depicts it as the study revolving around the scarceness of resources. This scarceness is exactly what forces human beings to manage their assets effectively. Beginning with land and food - for most human history, labor – right after the industrial revolution, through the knowledge in the 20th and 21st centuries' reality - resources situated in the main focus tend to shift over time.
Since the rise of the Internet, we can no longer complain about the scarcity of information. According to the WorldWebSize, at least 5.45 billion pages are currently comprising the Indexed Web. With such an abundance of information and a constant shortage of time, human attention has settled at the top of the ranking of scarce resources these days. That effectively explains why brands tend to bombard people with thousands of, often nonsensical, advertising messages every single day – attention has replaced information at the heart of advertising.
But hold on, is it truly reasonable to describe our attention as a scarce resource?
Obviously! Right now, I have your attention. Technically speaking, you could have freely decided to dedicate five minutes spent on reading my words to watching the news, admiring photos of adorable otters, or learning to play golf. (By the way, if you haven't decided to use one of these suggestions and continued sticking to this post, I am beyond grateful for that!)
An American economist, psychologist, and Nobel Prize Winner, Herbert A. Simon, has introduced the concept of attention economics in 1971, suggesting that "wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it." Since the 1990s, others started to use Simon's words; therefore, writers like Thomas H. Davenport and Michael Goldhaber have officially coined the term "attention economy." People began speculating that in the future, "attention transactions" will replace financial transactions as the backbone of our economic system.
And they were right.
These days, attention is the selling force in every possible industry.
The quality of material grasping awareness no longer matters; what matters is the most valuable asset of the 21st century.
How do businesses measure attention since it's an intangible asset?
According to the concept of' eyeball marketing,' modern consumers use their attention to show brands appreciation and loyalty. The value of a business is based predominantly on consumer concentration directed at it rather than the company's revenue.
One of the most untapped ways to measure human attention is eye contact. Thus, one of the principal techniques used by online advertisers is the views counter. Scientists took it even a step further, dedicating their efforts to work on technologies enabling companies to track the "views" on classic, real-life ads, for example, billboards. It became possible with special cameras using the red-eye effect to spot the human gaze directed at them. Nonetheless, in our highly digitalized world, companies continuously stick to the bounce rates, clicks, and time spent by consumers on viewing a brand's website, which might not be the most reliable indicator after all.
Threats of the attention economy
Criticism directed at social media and technology usage effectively speaks for itself – the era of the attention economy definitely has many drawbacks.
An important aspect to keep in mind is that the attention economy has a formidable potential to promote extremism in all life areas.
Why? Imagine waking up to your social media newsfeed full of regular and mundane news. I bet you would quickly stop being entertained by that portal. Instead, the more extreme the occurrence is, the more potential readers it will lure. This is why sometimes you might have the feeling that everybody is getting married, buying new cars, or going on holidays - what you see are just the most 'extreme' events in your social network.
Additionally, the attention economy firmly rewards narcissistic people who are the top-tier attention grabbers. For the same reason, political views bursting with radicalism and ignorance (thus stirring powerful emotions) turn heads much more often than level-headed opinions.
Okay, but what if I told you that every cloud has a silver lining?
Yes, this prevalent saying is also applicable here. Many benefits of the attention economy are not immediately noticeable for us. At the forefront of advantages stands the awareness of dozens of social problems, like racism, sexism, homophobia. Publications of harmful situations and attitudes make the public consciously confront them, leading to the feeling of responsibility, political activism, and mobilization across the globe.
Moreover, the technology building the facades of the attention economy enables us to contact our family and acquaintances, even when we are on the other side of the globe. It helps to supplement our relationships with others and stay aware of global news.
How to thrive in the era of the attention economy?
Since we live in the age of ubiquitous information, surrounded by advertisements and companies' logotypes haunting us even in our own homes, we can quickly adjust to this reality and recklessly hand our attention over to every triggering element we encounter.
But who earns the most value from that – companies or us?
It is crucial to practice the necessary skill of focus – it is truly economical for companies to spread one person's attention across hundreds of factors every single day, leaving them confused and scatterbrained. The scarce ability to maintain long-term focus can lead to all kinds of successes in basically every aspect of life.
We need to remember that technology and its prevalence, preying on our attention, are not the main problems.
The issue is how we decide to use it. Just as Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, described in his powerful words: "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
Don't let the attention economy brutally benefit from that space of yours!
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