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The attention economy

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Re: The attention economy

#51

Post by paulojreis »

advertising wrote: post #19

I got into work mode the past couple years of my life and spent most time either working or speaking with people, then browsing my phone in the downtimes / before bed / first thing in the morning. I hadn't read a book in a couple of years and it was scary the first time I tried again. Literally could not read more than 1 - 1.5 pages without my mind wandering or feeling the pang to check the feed on my phone. Kind of…

"The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr might be of interest to you. And, well, to almost everyone here - your symptoms probably already appeared in one way or another to anyone who's reading this.

Personally, while I consider myself pretty disciplined, I feel deeply frustrated (almost angry at myself) whenever I'm actually trying to focus on something and feel the need to also do/see/check/read something else. Not exactly a facebook feed, but I've come to Hacker News while reading. I don't know what's the most commonly accepted definition of addiction, but this certainly feels like it.

http://www.amazon.com/Shallows-What-Internet-Doing-Brains/dp...

Re: The attention economy

#52

Post by ericzawo »

cousin_it wrote: post #37

I feel that media (from newspapers onwards) are doing a great harm by consuming more and more of the attention that people could have spent on each other. A big part of modern loneliness can be blamed on this. When you empathize with Harry Potter more strongly than with those near you, they feel the loss, even though they can't articulate it. Many escapist fantasies are yearning for a world where people pay more atte…

I think there's reason to be optimistic. For example, social media and the internet have gave way to many new friendships and communities that simply wouldn't have been possible otherwise. While I understand and, too, struggle with the collective feeling of modern loneliness, I think ultimately there's more avenues than ever for people to bond over ideas.

However, you are right that even more increased demand for our headspace in exchange for moments of reflection and, as Louis CK[1] says it, "just being a person," are cause for concern.

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c

Re: The attention economy

#53

Post by studentrob »

exolymph wrote: post #21
advertising wrote: post #19

I got into work mode the past couple years of my life and spent most time either working or speaking with people, then browsing my phone in the downtimes / before bed / first thing in the morning. I hadn't read a book in a couple of years and it was scary the first time I tried again. Literally could not read more than 1 - 1.5 pages without my mind wandering or feeling the pang to check the feed on my phone. Kind of…

> Personally, reading again was a great way to rebuild my attention span and just rewiring my brain in general. I had no idea how bad I had become. I've gone through this same process. It was definitely frightening to realize how far I'd fallen from my grade-school bookworm days. I have to consciously fight against bad information-intake habits now. I actually wrote an ebook about it: https://www.amazon.com/How-Start…

So, to start reading again I have to read a book that tells me how to read. Hmm

Re: The attention economy

#54

Post by studentrob »

msb wrote: post #25

"An overabundance of rabbits leads to a shortage of lettuce."..."a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." Herbert Simon talked about this when we were still sending men to the moon [1]. This should be the charge of HCI practitioners, but the needs of consumers have largely been ignored. AI might provide some relief (my phone is getting better at learning when not to disrupt me...but it has a long way…

> Herbert Simon talked about this when we were still sending men to the moon [1].

Cool, thanks for sharing. It's sobering to realize when people have already discussed things we face today

> mostly I think it is up to us to close, ignore or turn away.

Yeah. I feel like there are some successful people who say that stopping doing things is as important as doing things. Or, they say giving up control is useful. For every time that you are able to give up control, you can move comfortably to a new role within an organization. Giving attention to all the news can be seen as a form of control we're attempting to exert on the world, says me, another guilty person

> What I fear the most is that by choosing to do so leaves us appearing lazy and/or disengaged in important professional and personal situations.

That's fear of missing out talking. Tell him to shut it :)

Re: The attention economy

#55

Post by studentrob »

cousin_it wrote: post #37

I feel that media (from newspapers onwards) are doing a great harm by consuming more and more of the attention that people could have spent on each other. A big part of modern loneliness can be blamed on this. When you empathize with Harry Potter more strongly than with those near you, they feel the loss, even though they can't articulate it. Many escapist fantasies are yearning for a world where people pay more atte…

> I feel that media (from newspapers onwards) are doing a great harm by consuming more and more of the attention that people could have spent on each other

Is that media's fault?

> Unfortunately it's not an individual problem ("stop complaining and make yourself worthy of attention"), but a collective one, similar to those game theory examples where selfish decision-making leads to the worst outcome for all. Creating more startups and more media is only going to make it worse

Are you certain that everyone feels a burning desire to be known at such scales?

> I've toyed with some ideas of improving things on a small scale, like opening a bar where people can't use their phones. I wish I knew a more general solution, though.

That sounds fun! No need to save the world. Make a small one for yourself and revel in it. If you gave free drinks in exchange for being able to put people on TV, like big brother bar, where people have to figure out how to communicate without phones, I'd watch that haha

Re: The attention economy

#56

Post by studentrob »

colmvp wrote: post #2

Does anyone have tips for re-gaining focused attention? Willing to try anything at this point.

I agree with any responses that say disconnect from everything in order to gain focus. Best for me, in my experience, has been meditation in a chair in the morning for 20 minutes before touching any device. I found the book Mindfulness in Plain English to be a good guide. It's freely available online in ebook format

Re: The attention economy

#57

Post by Houshalter »

studentrob wrote: post #53
exolymph wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, reading again was a great way to rebuild my attention span and just rewiring my brain in general. I had no idea how bad I had become. I've gone through this same process. It was definitely frightening to realize how far I'd fallen from my grade-school bookworm days. I have to consciously fight against bad information-intake habits now. I actually wrote an ebook about it: https://www.amazon.com/How-Start…

So, to start reading again I have to read a book that tells me how to read. Hmm

You have to start somewhere.

Re: The attention economy

#59

Post by losteric »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #31
throwaway13337 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even movies are too slow now for me and some others I'm around. Rarely am I engaged the whole time. It doesn't matter the genre. They take too long - just like books - to get a point across. It's definitely a symptom of the proliferation of smartphones. I'm not sure it's an entirely bad thing - just a shift in the way we consume media. Short burst rather than long-form. Long stretches of passive consumption could be…

Not just smartphones, but the internet in general in my experience. I'm not much of a smartphone user, I have the latest phone but I'm not a power-user at all. But I have the same issues talked about. For me it's related to how I consume information, it's very non-linear. Wikipedia is probably the best example, you read a page, then come across affiliated topics and click those, you go down the information tree on th…

I think and learn the same way, but this is very different behavior from what the article describes.

What you're describing is just a way of learning... Diving deep into the knowledge graph to understand related topics. You non-linearly learn many topics, but you're never really distracted from learning process.

That's a bit different than checking your cell phone for a second before dinner, seeing a twitter notification, responding to your friend, catching up on the past 40 minutes of posts, re-posting viral content, noticing another friend's weekend photos, following an interesting hash tag to other people's posts, seeing a reminder pop up for a game, playing the game, seeing an add for a new movie, watching the trailer, posting it on facebook, noticing a funny meme on your frontpage, following the meme to youtube, watching people play games, and then realizing dinner has been cold for a while.

The former is scattered learning. The latter is just spinning wheels, literally wasting time. It's dangerous and detrimental to society.

Re: The attention economy

#60

Post by g42gregory »

So true. I now use SelfControl free app to cut off all social media, news, videos throughout the day and in the evening. I also block all social, news and video content on my iPhone (it was very hard not to remember 4 digit password but it eventually faded from the memory). I started reading Financial Times and The Economist in the physical copy to get the news. I feel that my mind functions so much better than before. The difference in productivity is striking really.
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