welcome to the Attention Economy

We often speak in economic terms about our attention: we either "pay" attention or "lose" it. This is not just a figure of speech - our attention is our most valuable asset. If you have ever wondered how valuable your attention is, consider that a trillion-dollar industry relies on it.

We all live in what researchers coined as "The Attention Economy."

In a seminal paper by the UN Economist Network, the concept of "attention economy" is defined as "Treating human attention as a valuable resource that can be captured, monetized, and exploited for profit."

Simply put: we are competing for our own attention with forces way bigger than ourselves. Forces whose business models depend on our attention - divided or undivided, as long as they can get a piece of it.

Your attention shapes your life

It's hard to overstate how important your attention is to shaping your life. Every moment of your day, from the moment you wake till you drift asleep, you are faced with endless choices about where to direct your attention. Whether it's binge-watching a new series or calling a friend, scrolling through news feeds or engaging in a hobby, being present at family time, or checking work emails.

Our attention - and how we use it - is the driving force that shapes not just our daily routine but also the life that we live. Our decisions about where to "pay" our attention shape the course of our lives – our relationships, knowledge, health, and happiness.

But our attention is a finite resource – when we focus on one activity, we inherently dismiss countless others. Distractions come in all forms - from the wrappers of your snack to the billboard on the road.

They are all part of the "attention economy" scrambling for a piece of your divided attention.

Who owns your attention?

Our attention is not just finite but also scarce. As crucial as our attention is, so is its fragility. We are easily distractable creatures. According to modern neuroscience, our capacity to "multitask" is nothing more than a myth. It seems that our attention tends to prefer one thing at a time.

According to countless studies, our brains are not designed to focus on multiple tasks simultaneously. A single email distraction can cause efficiency to drop by as much as 40%. It takes time (on average 15 minutes) to re-orient to a primary task after a distraction.

Yet, we are constantly bombarded with information and noise vying for our attention. Some estimates put the number of advertisements - hidden and explicit - that hit us daily by an average of over 40,000 bits of messaging.

The competition for our attention has turned into a war on our attention.

A box of chocolate or a slot machine?

In the timeless movie named for him, Forrest Gump ponders life by saying, "Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you will get." - The unpredictability of life often renders life colorful. We are conditioned to seek some level of adventure and uncertainty.

This simple desire can easily be leveraged against us. This mechanism lies at the core of current smartphone and social media design, building never-ending anticipation and dopamine loops that keep users scrolling endlessly.

Tech companies' core business model is to extract as much time and attention from users as possible. To illustrate this point, here are two central design features tech companies use to keep you hooked, both directly adapted from slot machine design.

Infinite Scrolling - Whether it's your Google homepage or your Instagram feed, the feed seems bottomless. This is by design; with no end in sight, there is always an anticipation for a little more. And, of course, there should be a refresh button that works like slot machines. You pull the screen or click the button, and a new feed emerges. And just like the junkie feeding the slot machine with his cash, the user gives more chunks of his time and attention to the monster feeding on their attention.

Notifications - Push notifications were designed in 2003 for Blackberry phones. Ironically, they were meant to help users spend "less" time on their phones by allowing them to see the subject of an email instantly. But since then, tech has realized that this is one of the best tools. They tweaked it and designed it for maximum efficiency to keep users returning. From the color scheme to the ping sounds, it's all crafted for a false sense of urgency.

A slot machine in your pocket

Have you ever considered buying a Slot Machine and putting it in your living room? How about a miniature slot machine on your desk to fidget between work tasks and meetings? Former Google insider Tristan Harris highlights how many addictive features of slot machines are incorporated into smartphones as part of the big tech business model to keep us engaged.

And sadly, it works: average smartphone users reach for their phone an estimated 144 times per day.

Our hands do it automatically, out of habit or boredom - primarily a combination of both. We reach into our pocket mindlessly, and out comes the phone. The notifications lead the way, and before we know it, we find ourselves in a rabbit hole of content, leaving us disoriented and distracted.

To combat this and take back our attention, we need to become active in setting boundaries around technology and adopt habits that foster digital wellness. More about Digital Wellness will be discussed in our next blog post.