We talk about this new paradigm being the ”attention economy,” but what kind of attention is it we're seeking? And is it even enough to seek attention simply for being ourselves, without some shady sensationalist gimmick?
I can assure you that even as you read these words there are entire teams of people sitting in large media corporations and advertising agencies working specifically on what will get your attention without necessarily paying any attention — no pun intended — to whether or not the attention seeking devices they are about to employ have any merit or value.
It is essentially the professional development of ”clickbait” across a vast array of different media and applications.
In other words, all they want is your attention. Once they have your attention, maybe they can sneak in a message or two, typically dominated by some agenda that definitely is not to your benefit. Much of the time there isn’t even a message because the purpose was served when you give a tiny nugget of attention, as a result of which some ”ad exposure” counts were gained and someone somewhere got paid for… essentially nothing.
You know, if you think about it, it'll get your attention if somebody blows up a bomb in your neighbor's trash can, right? It'll probably get your attention far faster than somebody whispering that there are cute baby deer in the back yard. Of course nobody pays attention to the fact that blowing up a trash can leaves garbage all over in the neighborhood!
The blown up trash can — which is annoying and make many of the neighbors angry — is deemed to have value, while the baby deer — which might actually offer everyone a small breath of peace and quiet — is deemed to have no value.
Which brings me back to the issue of getting actual information anywhere. It is virtually impossible! It isn't impossible because the information isn't out there, it's impossible because it is obfuscated by so much noise — in the form of metaphorical exploding trash cans everywhere — that finding the actual information you need is a bit like seeking a needle in a haystack… or maybe in an entire field filled with haystacks.
In the old days we talked about the ratio of signal to noise, and in today's world it seems like the only thing in the air is noise... and you almost feel forced to jump into the cloud of noise... in hopes of finding a tiny bit of actual signal in there.
It often feels like an exercise in both frustration and time wasting... as a result of which I am sure a lot of folks just throw their hands in the air and give up... as a result of which — one could argue — they "stay stupid," or at least remain uninformed.
And so, we circle back around to the sensation that real information is getting lost, as the scramble for attention intensifies.
Of course, taking "the high road" and not resorting to attention getting gimmicks means your message likely will end up lost in all the noise...
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Created at 2024.11.17 01:30 PST
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I occasionally find myself pulled into scrolling through Facebook reels or Youtube Shorts, hoping to find something entertaining, but often realizing I wasted an hour getting more and more annoyed. Angry people ranting, text-to-speech dialogue over unrelated game videos, stupid "reactions" to other stupid videos, and just enough stuff I might actually want to see to keep me scrolling past more ads and filler.
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