A Poverty Of Attention In An Attention Economy

In 1971 the social scientist Herbert Simon anticipated the attention economy when he wrote that in an information-rich world, the most scarce resource is the one that information itself consumes:  attention.  “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently,” he wrote.  Here’s how the designers of our devices, social platforms, operating systems, and websites have decided to allocate our attention:  They have placed a bounty on it, monetizing our data and our gaze.  Advertisements and other types of persuasive communication — political ads, entertainment, social media alerts — are all gunning for that bounty.
—    Zeynep Tufekci
From her article:  “In Praise Of One-Trick Ponies“
Appearing in:  Wired Magazine;  dtd:  October 2019
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On This Day In:
2019	Boxes
2018	Hoping For Better Come November
	An Honest Binge
2017	Give And Keep
2016	No Change Here
2015	Campbell’s Law
2014	Dignified Values
2013	Unappreciated Skill
2012	Living Courage
2011	What’s Happening To Us?
2010	Toothbrush, Carbon and Monoxide Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

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