*Sits down at desk, opens textbooks, opens laptop, opens word document, writes heading*
“Well, I’ve done enough work to earn some phone time.”
*Treats oneself to some quality social media stalking*
Shown above is a serious side-effect the attention economy has on those who attempt to “study.”
So, what is the attention economy?
To put it shortly, it is a platform which holds an abundance of information in a distributed information/network society close to its heart. This information and network flow is essentially what is vying for our attention.
Aggregators such as Google, Amazon, Spotify and Netflix control this attention, with their giant search engines powered to bring you the content you want, when you want it. Their huge libraries of “niche” content (as well as popular content) are what sets them apart. We know this because everyone’s taste departs from the mainstream somewhere, and the more we explore alternatives, the more we’re drawn to them.
Another example of networks vying for our attention are the applications on our phones such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and Snapchat. Their aim is to capture and hold our attention for as long as possible in order to make a profit from their social services.
Below is a little video of the attention economy and its effects on my study. After thoroughly analysing the results presented to me in this video, I have come to the conclusion that I need to get rid of my phone altogether.
Cheers,
V 🍻
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Have A Beer With V 
This was a really great post. Your research at the start brings the academic integrity to you post, and the video was very funny and engaging. It is so interesting how the attention economy has such a large stake in our day-to-day activities, and yet we’ve (or at least I’ve) only just learnt about it.
Your video also really highlighted how the attention economy is spread in the physical world; how when one person engages with it, they tend to share it with the people closest to them. I know I have definitely distracted friends or family who are busy with work, with a funny meme that I’ve found and want to share.
You could have gone further into how the long tail effect enables the aggregators to become so popular.
http://whimsley.typepad.com/whimsley/2007/03/new_marketplace.html
Here is an article that goes into this issue further.
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This was good post. The video was kinda just repetitive and didn’t need to be that long to get the point across. The attention economy really does have an effect on me, I find myself looking at Facebook for no reason at times. Overall an educational blog.
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I love this post, really like the video! Exactly how I work too!
An engaging post, and the video made the subject content easy to understand. Good research, the chart/photo is handy to see the development in Attention Economy. An interesting and also educating post, I didn’t even get distracted whilst reading. Thank you.
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Great post, with a perfect example of how the attention economy affects us physically in reality. I think this insight into how the abundance of valued platforms available to us can impair our real-time productivity is interesting. AJ Keen wrote a book titled ‘#digital vertigo: how today’s online social revolution is dividing, diminishing, and disorientating us’, which is a good read if you want to peep into the anti-bcm realm hahah. Overall, how do you think these platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. are each individually valuable that your attention is attracted to them? Awesome work 🙂
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