How To Take Back Your Attention This Year

In our world’s new attention economy, are you spending yours frivolously?

Photo by Oklahoma Academy Publishing on Unsplash

If you haven’t heard, society has entered a new era: the attention economy. With the rise of the internet and social media, companies quickly realized that the human attention span is an increasingly valuable asset.

When views become cash flow — the number of eyes watching and interacting with content become currency. Users are paying for this content with their attention, and content is designed to keep them watching.

In this world, everything is designed to distract you. Look at this bright, colorful, mesmerizing viral video with addicting music. Couldn’t you just watch it on endless loops? And what about doomscrolling — that depressing activity consuming hours of your time as you procrastinate going to sleep at night?

The truth is, if your attention makes other people money, and they want you to spend this currency mindlessly. The less you think about where you’re giving your attention, all the better.

In the attention economy, the ideal human is one who is endlessly distracted and never giving thought to what they’re watching and doing.