Inspired by @kevinwong and his post about attention economy (where he included a brilliant article written by Mark Manson) as well as several other stories published in the network, I started reading more about the importance of 'attention' in todays society and economy. This article is the result of my research and also an insight into my own experiences in the 'attention world'. So besides the economical aspects I also wanted to focus on the impact on society. 

How 'seeking attention' can change people considerably and why I don´t have a Facebook account anymore  

I will start my article with a personal experience I had some months ago. It was a Saturday evening and I went out with a guy. The get-together was actually meant to be kind of a first date. It was one of these perfect summer nights, so we went to a beach bar. I ordered a beer and he had a lemonade, telling me that he was on his '1 month without alcohol'. I thought: 'Nice, he seems to have a strong mind. It´s the perfect moment to have a beer but I totally respect his purpuse.' 

One morning just a few days after our get-together I woke up, prepared some coffee and scrolled down my Facebook wall. The first thing I saw was a video published by that guy. The clip was about two minutes long and showed him at night in the street, filming himself and some friends drunk and stoned talking bullshit into the camera. I couldn´t believe what I was seeing. An adult man, professional film maker by the way, representing himself completely destroyed in an open social network? Besides the fact that I totally despise any kind of drugs, I felt like he had made a fool of me watching him.  

I asked him why he sacrificed himself and his purpose to live healthy just for some seconds of attention. His explanation was that [quote] to entertain people I would do whatever is needed, even being the insane, drunken and crazy guy [unquote]. 

A few days later I closed my Facebook account. I was tired of so much stupidity. I was tired of all these people who are willing to gain attention by losing respect. I was tired of all these Kim Kardashians who sell their human values in order to become famous idiots. I was tired of being deceived. 

I was wondering where this uncontrolled need for attention really came from. 

How did the currency 'attention' become that valuable? 

In today's information-flooded and globalized world, the scarcest resource is neither ideas nor talent: it's attention. 

Thanks to the internet and the inexistence of any borders within a global network, knowledge became an easily accessible good. In the 21st century information is a common and shared possession, which means that the information itself has lost its value. 'I don´t need to know everything. I just need to know how and where to search.' This is actually the belief which made Google rich. 

What happened is that sharing information became very simple. The network growed very quickly and nowadays almost everybody is participating, putting more and more data into an already saturated system.  

According to the latest report of Google (17th of October 2016) this is the amount of new videos uploaded to YouTube every minute: 

300 hours video content uploaded to YouTube EVERY MINUTE *

*source: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/youtube-statistics/

Who the hell would ever watch all these sequences? And where are they stored? Servers must explode.
Thinking about these numbers - or at least trying - the problem falls into place. How could one of these videos get the appropriate attention? How could it stand out from all the others? 

How could any of these messages arrive safely at the destinated target group? 

From an economical point of view the big challenge is 'to be different'. So marketeers and creative agencies rack their brains over solutions to that problem. The consequences are obvious: marketing activities are getting more aggressive and obtrusive. 

A more or less funny personal experience: When I was still on Facebook I constantly received advertisements for pregnancy tests. It got really annoying. I cannot remember ever having posted anything or chatted with somebody about pregnancy, but maybe Mark Zuckerberg thought that my time had come...?!? :-D Oh dear, I don´t wanna even think about that! 

So how may that muffin call any attention amoung all these delicious brownies? 

Which are the impacts on society? 

Social media is the no. 1 'what does she has what I don´t have' stage. A constant comparison with others - and their nicely photoshopped lifes - can lead to self-doubts. People forget that the internet is not real and that every single selfie posing picture might be a big fake! The belief that others have a perfect life, being constantly travelling around the world, accompanied by their beautiful family, followed and liked and shared and commented by thousands of 'friends', while we are struggling in a relatively normal not that representative salary-earner´s life, may cause a certain depression.

The 'attention market' rewards people who tend to be narcissistic and self-promotional cause these people are the ones who are getting attention. As a consequence the world seems to become more superficial and self-absorbed. But actually we just become more exposed to other´s self-promotion.

Remember the recent election campaign in the US. Who did get most of the airtime? The loudest and the most radical. In the end everybody said "No, Trump won´t do that, it was just election blabla". Donald Trump is the perfect example of how the currency 'attention' is able to influence on a whole nation!  

It also seems like the 'attention market' brought out some voyeuristic tendencies in our society. Or why the hell the world stops turning when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt get seperated? People get seperated every single day! Why do we need to know every detail of their divorce? Why can´t we sleep anymore without having seen the recent paparazzi shots of a family we don´t even know? So seeking for attention also leads to a shift of ethical and moral borders. How much might a newspaper actually pay a paparazzo for one of these pictures? I prefer not to know... 

Apparently, a moment of attention (however achieved) is worth much more than any other form of appreciation. 

Some final thoughts:
Who would have thought that 'attention' could ever become one of the most valuable goods in our world? The good thing about evolution is that it behaves like the Ocean - moving like waves. At the moment 'attention' has reached its high tide. But people will get stressed by these information bombs and start retiring. They already do. And steemit may be one of the beneficiaries. Yes, attention is also important on steemit, but reputation and rewards are not given to simple attention seekers. There is no spamming and no headlining, no people needing to get naked, losing their respect for a bunch of votes. steemit is a self-controlled quality content base providing real knowledge. And: I am quite happy to be part of it!

PS: I just ordered that book on amazon, if it provides some interesting information I´ll share it with you, promised :-)

  

Thank you very much for your ATTENTION :-) 

Cheers & live your dream,
Marly - 

Picture source - title quote: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/-thank-you-for-your-attention--2/
Picture source - Diana: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/544513411176392944/
Picture source - New York: pixabay.com
Picture source Andy Warhol: http://www.widewalls.ch/andy-warhol-quotes-which-predicted-the-future/
Picture source book cover: https://www.amazon.com/Attention-Economy-Understanding-Currency-Business/dp/1578518717