Welcome to Attentixn — where I try to make sense of what’s happening from an attention [economy] perspective.
Photo by Kevin Ku on Unsplash
Why should you care?
TL;DR — attention is the most valuable resource we have. It’s even more scarce than time! Therefore, we should be a lot better at understanding, managing, and [re]directing it.
Imagine you have something as valuable as time [no time machine — yet]. Now, lose [almost] a third of it — to sleep. What you’re left with is the maximum amount of attention you can possibly have — to spend. So you have a limited amount of attention to pay to other people and stuff.
To spend that valuable attention, you have to be awake and want to. Even if something accidentally grabs your attention, if you don’t want to pay attention to it, you can ignore it — sometimes easier said than done, but not impossible.
Now, think about every little piece of information on every platform online — and offline; they’re fighting for your attention… Yes, it’s that valuable!
“...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it” — Herbert A. Simon (1971)
In the online world, whatever’s free, you’re paying for it with your attention — and your personal data — but they won’t have that personal data if you don’t spend time on — and pay attention to — that platform.
This is the most appropriate place to thank you for your Attentixn.
Understanding attention and applying economic concepts to it in various situations helped me navigate my life a lot better — I’m hoping it can help you too; even if it’s only one person and just a little bit.
Who am I?
My name is Behrouz Jafarnezhad. Sometimes, I introduce myself as Ben; usually when I don’t want to lose/redirect your attention to my unfamiliar name.
While I’m working on finishing my PhD [focusing on attention in academia], I help small and medium-sized businesses manage the attention of their audience [mainly online].
I also create and curate content on tech & media business in a weekly newsletter, a family of telegram channels, and a blog — and now this.
I enjoy a good podcast while driving — and updating apps when I’m not. I love taking photos, creating Snapchat lenses, and reading and writing — when I don’t have to.
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In the meantime, tell your friends!