Attention, Economy, and You

Making sense of what humans have done in the past is easy, we call it history. Making sense of what we’ll do in the future is also easy since there’s no liability (unless you are a doctor and your patient wants to know the truth). But, making sense of what we are collectively doing in the present is hard (we don’t know if we are on the right dot to connect the dots later).

Making sense of the present is especially hard when everything around us in technology, economy, politics, and religion (society) is happening for the first time.

In technology, the reality is inching towards sci-fi. In the economy, the gurus are expecting a crash. In Politics, the right is on the rise around the globe. And the religions can be mostly found on the extremities. Amidst this seemingly gloomy yet summarising opinion, here I’m trying to link everything down to us, the humans. Our attention, our economy, and us, and how they are shaping the world around us.

Attention,

The costliest asset in the market at present is our attention, not the kind that you give to road-side billboards while riding a car but the kind that you give to your kids, partners, and pets.

Attention is the only thing that we can give to someone. Attention is equal to love and care. But we give our precious attention to apps, campaigns, news, political debates, and the latest tv shows. We aren’t attentive to the person we are living under the same roof with. But more attentive to the notifications, emails, and offers.

We aren’t made to be attentive to the global crisis and possibilities. We survived for so long because we have a knack for being attentive to our immediate surroundings, family, nature, and we take care of it in a way that it takes care of us. But now more than ever, we are not being attentive to our surrounding. Not attentive to nature, to the humans kind, our partners, and even our own physical and emotional needs.

And somehow, the attention miners have figured the right rigs for it, short-term gratification. We have collectively surrendered to the short-term gratification. So deep, so sticking-ly shocking and painstakingly glued we are to the mobile phones, offers, and validation. So much love and admiration and loyalty we have for the brands and the message they give.

Admiration for “Netflix and chill”, “just do it”, “think different”, “I’m loving it”, “don’t be evil”, “Be what’s next” is OK. But things, in reality, are evil and different, only if you take a closer look into them. I know for sure, you’ll not be loving-it and expecting them to create what’s next if you get to see the world from their perspective, their motives, and their long term intentions.

Collectively we are more driven by the signals than the substance itself. Our generation, growing up on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the on-demand entertainment, prescribed drugs, and food is so sucked into the signals that we hardly recognize the substance anymore.

“Fake it until you make it” is the Moto we are living by. Apparently, faking it has become a new fad. We have reached a point in time where faking-it and making IT are two separate worlds. Ironically, “faking it” is attracting more than “making it”. Attracting more attention, more capital, and more of what we call these days “NEWS”.

Economy

A major part of the economy at present comes from unprecedented exploitation of human psyche. Or in corollary, for the benefits of the economy, there are elements that are exploiting us. In the words of capitalism, making the world a better place (for them of course). The worst part is, the exploitation doesn’t seem like exploitation at all. In fact, everything is a trend, pop, and fun. A new sitcom, documentary, filter, app, feature, news and it keeps on going.

One element that has become central in the economy is data. The new and powerful tools of artificial intelligence are making companies more powerful than governments. No one predicted that the excess to individual data and attention will form the biggest companies that we see in the present.

The momentum of the giant data-driven forces has become a roadblock for themselves. Even if they shout “The Future is Private” at the top of their lungs it is hard to believe them. Out of oblivion, people are developing and running tech companies. They did not foresee that the ability to broadcast what’s on one’s mind will affect democracies, journalism, and global ideologies.

Digital claustrophobia

The economy has built perfect products and services for us to live in a small bubble. They call this bubble a “personalized experience”. This personalized experience is now a reason for claustrophobia for many.

The fake news, online bullying, viral trends, extreme ideologies, stress, gig-economy-is-awesome, etc. thrive in these digital personalized spaces. The concerns with a substance such as global warming, water crisis, suffocating pollution in the developing countries, rising right wing, lower-than-minimum-wages for the gig-economy workers, compromised privacy on the Internet, and censorship gets clouded by the extremely promising vision and mission statements by the front runners of the economy.

You

We — Us — The Collective.

An entire generation is tied to their sofas with mobile phone in one hand, laptop on the belly, earphones plugged in (just to make sure that reality can’t hit them with reality) — scrolling, binge-watching, texting, playing and doing everything that cannot be done IRL.

We’ve invited the most unnatural elements in the most intimate routines of our life. Like waking up, eating, talking, going to bed, and even shitting. Mobile phones are trash, but they take us a step closer to the cyborg sci-fi story. And a step farther from the society that exists to discover, set, and follow worldly aims and live in a reality that partially feeds off the gossips. Instead, we are creating virtual reality, in other words, going below the discover. Below “Discover” is “Define”.

As we tap into the “Define” sphere. The right and wrong, perceived truths and facts do not matter. That mildly affects each and every individual who was ever touched by the kind of Attention crisis and Economy that we discussed above.

The economically and politically driven intentions are ripping our attention off us, the body and mind [life and emotions are nothing more than stories and constructs]. Those who’ve deciphered this a decade ago are on top of the economic food chains. If these are mere constructs, we can create them and destroy them. But all we can do now is choose them and live with a reality that is actually a bubble.

Attention, Economy, and You was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.