Our lives are what we pay attention to

Information glut isn’t the real problem of these times

Anxiety over the hold of technology on daily lives and minds drives everyday conversations – the ills of fake news and misinformation, how politicians exploit algorithms, what social media is doing to our thoughts, to our children and body politic, are analysed to the last byte. Availability of, and access to, information right, wrong and indeterminate is infinite and plentiful. It is a cheap resource. There is no dearth of predictions on the scary outcomes of the stranglehold of this surfeit of information.

Yet all of it misses the reality that we are not living in an Information Age, but in an Attention Economy, argues journalist Chris Hayes in The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became The World’s Most Endangered Resource. Way more critical than all the muchly debated ills of an information glut is that we have ceded control over who and what has our attention –a finite resource.

Hayes uses American legal scholar Lawrence Lessig’s example of a picnic table to explain his point. Information is the idea of a picnic table in your backyard. Even if others pick up the idea of that picnic table – your information – it doesn’t really impact your own picnic table, it is still yours, you still have it. But, the picnic table itself – that’s attention. So, if your picnic table is taken away – well, that entity has your attention and you don’t have it.

That’s how finite attention is. You either control who has your attention, or you’re flitting from one to another. The fight is for your attention. Our capacity to focus is limited, which makes attention a scarce and sought after commodity. Reality is grainy and grey, so we much better enjoy glitzy tinsel-tinted bright hi-def images and noise – it grabs our attention.

The book explores how industries have evolved to capture and monetise our attention. Social media platforms’ and news outlets’ systemic effort to design content and experiences that keep us engaged, often at the expense of our well-being. The book delves into how modern technologies tap into our neurological responses, creating addictive patterns similar to those found in gambling. This exploitation leads to a state where our attention is continuously hijacked, diminishing our ability to engage in deep, meaningful focus.

The attention economy thrives on sensationalism. Content that provokes emotional reactions is rewarded, mostly at the expense of accuracy. Hayes argues that propagandists exploit this to manipulate public opinion. This creates an environment where misinformation spreads faster than truth, eroding trust in institutions and making consensus-building nearly impossible.

Algorithms tailor content to individual preferences, creating echo chambers and filter bubbles. Such personalisation reinforces ideological divides. Citizens no longer share a common information base. Without a shared reality, public discourse fractures. Society loses the ability to even agree on what needs solving. The public sphere turns reactive.

Hooked to this stream of information/misinformation translates into not paying attention to grainy realities of governance. Digital distraction directly impacts democracy, which depends on citizens paying attention to governance. But attention is hijacked by entertainment and outrage in equal parts. People disengage from civic life. This, the book argues, opens the gates for authoritarian tendencies because fewer people are participating in democratic process or holding leaders accountable. Commodification of attention is more than a cultural or technological issue. It’s a structural threat to democratic society. Our lives are what we pay attention to.