The Attention Economy

 

The regime's takeover of media enterprises is rooted in the general public's "need for the feed."

The executive, himself, is sustained by media creation and consumption. His media diet is like his actual dietary intake -- fast, highly processed, nutritionless. And he and his Cabinet -- an assortment of Twinkies, Moonpies and Yoo-Hoos -- are fine with that. After a full day of consuming trash on Fox News, he graces us with his nightly flatulence on Truth Social.

And now, the emptiness of media messages from properties already under the regime's influence/control is evident in once-respected CBS's reporting mandates that bear the strong odor of hands-off/hands-up to keep MAGA nation engaged.

None of this is completely new; some part of the developed world's economy has been based on selling public attention since mass media were invented.

But, one of the reasons -- perhaps the main reason -- legacy media struggled after the arrival of "new media" is advertisers discovered a more reliable, quantifiable way to monetize consumer attention. Advertisers -- who knew they were wasting money on media buys but were never sure how much -- no longer settled for newspapers' coverage and reach reports, which were wishful approximations, at best. Ad space/time buyers could actually measure which ads readers viewed and for how long. Eureka! When these measures were refined, print media revenue pipelines dried up.

Newsrooms responded with staff layoffs and the gradual shift from product thrown on lawns and delivered to mailboxes to that delivered via computer screens. And that, to quote the poet, "has made all the difference."

Now, information and news compete with scantily clad influencers pushing protein powder and Ozempic for some portion of those 960 waking minutes the average person has to give their attention to something. More and more that something is online.

Researchers tell us that from 2004 to 2023, pleasure reading among Americans declined by 40 percent -- 40 PERCENT. How do we get out of this?

I asked AI how one leaves the "attention economy," and it offered, without irony, "Leaving the attention economy means reclaiming your time, focus, and cognitive autonomy from the constant pull of algorithm-driven platforms. It’s not just about avoiding social media — it’s about reshaping habits, environments, and values so that attention is no longer commodified for profit."

Maybe pick up a book?

As Stephen King famously said, “Reading takes time, and the glass teat takes too much of it.”

Amen.