In my view, attention relates to interacting an engaging with almost anything; Whether it be a person, a book, a television show, and so on. One thing that holds a huge amount of attention is the internet. One of the readings for this week was an article by Michael H.Goldhaber, titled "Attention Shoppers!" This explores what Michael explains as the "flowing" of attention through cyberspace.
This article explains the concept of information technology, where people use their 'scarce' resources and trade among each other. Michael believes that this definition can no longer state, as a result of the internet. This is because the internet has endless information within it, which can no longer be described as scarce. This overload of information has resulted in the economy of attention becoming "the natural economy of cyberspace", as stated by Michael.
An interesting point Michael makes is that "attention has its own behavior, its own dynamics, its own consequences". This is due to the fact that it has created its own economy, separate from the others among society. Attention is something which can only be created in the mind, rather than through mediums such as "electronic devices".
This economy of attention is important because it achieves many purposes among humans. Something as simple as reading a map to find your way to a place is an example of attention, which achieves an aim. It can help us in our daily lives. Attention can also refer to the kind which is aimed towards oneself, such as an individual who is praised with attention after achieving something impressive, like winning an award.
This article made me aware of the vast concept of attention, and how it it can is a huge part of our lives, even if we don't always realise that we are applying attention. This so called economy on the internet is one which dominates many others, such as the food economy, for the amount of information brought to our attention is never scarce.
Thanks for reading!
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