{"id":44023,"date":"2018-09-17T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T10:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=44023"},"modified":"2018-09-17T04:08:58","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T08:08:58","slug":"thinking-about-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=44023","title":{"rendered":"Thinking About Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s no podcast this week, so instead I want to talk about this CGP Grey Video<\/a>, where he talks about how social media is evolving to capture as much of our attention as possible.<\/p>\n

The idea is that sites are using metrics and algorithms to refine their behavior to capture more and more of our time. They figure out what attracts us, and refine their feeds to keep that sort of stimulus coming. This produces sort of evolutionary arms race of attention-whoring. The example he gives is where you open an app, check for new content, close it, and then check it again right away. The idea is that we’re spending less time reflecting. We have fewer quiet moments. We’re on a steady drip of content throughout our waking hours. Grey mentions that some of his friends even listen to podcasts in the shower<\/em>. Trivial content wins out over weighty content. Short content wins out over long. Our brains are forever stuck in this reflexive loop of seeking and consuming ephemeral stimulus.<\/p>\n