ATTENTION MONOPOLY

Attention Monolpoly

Today's reading was very focused on how technology monopolizes our attention, and the negatives of that. When I think of something always having my attention, and bugging to keep my attention, I think of our cell phones. We get notifications of what keeps us the most distracted, and what we like to see. Some of these set to notify us when we've been away for a while. This always brings us back to what controls our attention. Williams mentions a DDoS attack where an attacker controls computers all at once and disengages them from communication. He then relates this to technology being a DDoS attack on humans (88). I liked this relation because it really makes me think about how technology really does control our attention and what we miss around us. 

ATTENTION CONTROL

Chapter 10 mentions a technique of attention control that YouTube has enhanced. 

In the red box at the top right of the page is an "UP NEXT" video, showing what video will be showing up next. They are always videos related to the video that you are watching at the time. A viewer would notice this, and be ready to watch the next video. Keeping them from leaving the page or going onto something else. Now, say a person didn't notice this in the corner of the screen. YouTube has it all covered. At the end of the video, a screen showing that same related video pops up, again, keeping the viewer interested. This is a very effective way of keeping people attention fixated on their site. I'm sure we've all been struck on those random YouTube video binges that seem to go on for hours. This is a main reason why. 

Now what could possibly be so bad about technology having so much of our attention? I get that it can keep us from experiencing the outside world, but isn't that a choice of the user?

Williams argues that technology moves and upgrades way to fast to keep up with. We never know the true effects of such digital technology because of that (98). This can be something that has a very negative effect on all users. Because we don't know the effects, we are unable to warn users of harm that it may cause. I think because we see technology being upgraded so rapidly, that we come to the assumption that it is constantly getting better for us. The newer upgrades make things easier and faster than the older ones. But since we can't take into account the negatives that come with it, how are we supposed to know how to upgrade the next piece to make it a better use for us?