“Living in an attention economy means dealing with not only a scarcity of time to consume information (and people as information) but also a scarcity of empathy. Attention deficits become double-sided; we don’t have enough to focus on what’s important, and we don’t receive enough to feel solid. Intimate communication becomes inefficient as its cheap, token abundance makes it less effective. All of it fails to convince; it all raises more questions of trust rather than answers.” – Rob Horning, “Living in Microfame”
Attention surfeit disorder
April 10th, 2013 · 2 Comments
Tags: Lit & Crit
2 responses so far ↓
1 Averil Dean // Apr 11, 2013 at 4:48 pm
I was listening to a talk by Joyce Carol Oates, who says that consciousness, both personal and societal, is evolving. I hadn’t really thought of it in those terms, and I hadn’t considered the double-sided notion of attention deficit.
We’re living through an interesting time in history. Massive shifts in a short period of time, and it’s all still accelerating. Now if only someone would steer. . . .
2 Tetman Callis // Apr 12, 2013 at 4:54 am
our biological evolution has become almost irrelevant. we’re much the same animals we were 100,000 years ago. our evolution is now expressed in our culture, with culture defined in the broad sense.
there is no one among us can steer this explosion.
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