The Attention Crisis

Historically, since the 18th century, the human capacity for attention has been a source of public concern. We have been continually warned of the risk of becoming distracted and forgetting to pay attention to what really matters. Some are calling this a sign of ‘moral failure’.

Digital technology has transformed the way we talk, read and imagine. Sven Birkerts asserts that the emergence of digital technology has been ‘dramatically more accelerated and more psychologically formative than any previous technological transformation we have gone through as a species’ (Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age).

In the last ten years in particular, the world’s media, entertainment and information has been brought directly to our screens. And whilst we as consumers may love all things digital like Spotify, Netflix, Facebook and YouTube, the result of all that popularity is that the industry is rapidly approaching ‘peak attention’ - the moment when our collective attention is saturated. We are literally coming to the point where there is no more time to give.

Statistics tell us that, between online and offline media platforms, we are spending an average of one hour more per day on media than we did just two years ago – totalling an incredible 11 hours a day. (And yes, I realise the irony in that I am currently using one of these media platforms now). Using this figure, if you then subtract time for living, eating and working, there is not much time remaining for anything else.

Now we can understand why Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, recently admitted that their biggest competitor is sleep!

So what exactly is the ‘Attention Economy’?

In 1971, Herbert Simon, an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, psychologist and computer scientist, identified that the explosion in information through the internet has led to a scarcity of what it consumes: our attention. And things that are scarce have increasing value, which leads to increased competition.

In its early stages, the internet encouraged content and sharing which was free. But in our commercial world, internet business had to find a way of making money without actually charging users. Today, on all mediums like television, newspapers, radio etc., advertising has become increasingly important, especially when our attention is becoming increasingly more difficult to capture. So now, if you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product - or your attention is!

And with things like increased computational power, machine learning, big data and the ability to measure human behaviour, the ability to garner our attention and keep it will only get better with time.

Attention is in short supply these days and, when we do have it, it is distributed or fragmented. The ‘age of distraction’ suggests that the act of paying attention is now incredibly difficult. As adults, perhaps we are more attuned to recognising these problems and solving them by walking away from things like social media. Unfortunately, this is not as easy when children, in particular, are concerned.

The emergence of platforms such as FaceBook and Instagram over the past couple of decades continues to lead to inattentive and distracted minds. They also serve to inflate our perception of reality, affect our interpersonal relationships and we risk losing our ability to communicate. Our heavy usage of social media platforms and technology can be directly detrimental to our personal well-being and the constant bombardment of aspiration and expectation causes depression and anxiety in many kids, teenagers and adults. The more we participate, build profiles and social networks, the more identity we also stand to lose if we try to walk away. We are locked in battle…and the battle is with ourselves as well as technology.

As outlined by Matthew B. Crawford’s book The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction, ‘as things get more complicated, and less self-contained, it will be harder to be responsible for your own physical environment. ‘The effect will be to lead us even further into passivity and dependence - an expansion of the domain of life that we hand off to experts. Our attention will be to be freer for amusements, which we will choose from an ever-expanding menu of options.’

There is an attention arms race underway beneath our beautiful sleek screens and it is forcing services to enter into a destructive competitive spiral for our continued attention, even if that increasingly means disrupting us or high-jacking our focus.

So what is the solution? Where does that leave the users of this brave new digital world?

I wish I had the answer.

As TV personality, Edward Murrow, once said:

“This [instrument] can teach, it can illuminate; yes, even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.”

I do know this…

Time is the ultimate finite resource and increasingly, ours is being spent online.

Our population has never had such a bigger gulf between its youngest and oldest members before; this will only increase through the expansion of digital technology.

The battle for our attention continues to be fought, and we cannot afford to lose.

Penelope is a motivational and technical speaker, CEO, Chairwoman, author and Ambassador. Penelope uses her expertise in her fields and personal experiences as a road map to empower people and help them find their strengths, pursue their dreams and create success.