The Attention Tension

Let’s give some attention to our attention.

I propose a challenge: Can you get through this article without getting distracted? I bet not. But you get a gold star if you do!

Attention

Access to valuable information use to be very limited. Life was much slower, and people had the time to attend and truly engage with most of the information they were presented with.  It wasn’t until the last couple decades that we’ve seen a transition from sacred information to abundant information. Now, as you know it, we are engulfed into a rabbit hole of information. It’s a strange liminal of tension and satisfaction. We are pulled left, click right, scroll down and swipe up.

Our greatest commodity in the digital age is our eyeballs. Yup, not our money, our eyeballs- our attention. Tech companies compete on who can design the most eyeball-attention-worthy content. They offer viewers ‘free’ softwares (Apps) full of content and we pay our dues with our attention. Our attention is a valuable and limited resource. So, of course they would monetize it, duh. Ever-not-so-slyly they interrupt our YouTube binges and scrolling frenzies with Ads to make the real bang for 

their buck.

Squirrel!

James William author of Stand Out of Our Light made a very interesting point. He asks, ‘what is the goal of these tech companies? What exactly is its function designed to do? Mmmh, they don’t serve a functional purpose like a toothbrush or a shoe. Isn’t it supposed to make our lives more convenient? Well I guess that was the initial intention. But for some reason, many of us feel more distracted than ever.

To paint the picture, he gives the analogy of a GPS. Its function is to guide us to our destination. Simple enough, right? But what if it took us off-roading, got us lost, turned us around, and rerouted us adding a whopping extra 30 minutes to our destination? Who would buy a product like this? Why would you pay for something you know doesn’t do its job?

Ding!

Designing People

It is no secret that products are designed to cue behaviors ours of consumers. With the constant innovation of products, the old can become quite insatiable, rather fast. Products initially fulfill their functional duties in the market, they start to train people to do the desired thing, they get comfortable and then ask for more from consumers. Just like a toothbrush is designed to influence people to routinely brush their teeth and shoes are meant to be worn on our feet. Now, a normal toothbrush isn’t enough, you need the electric one. And do I even need to address your shoe collection?

We see this same pattern play out in the digital world. We downloaded Facebook to socially connect with our friends and family. Sixteen years later, every few scrolls are an Ad, a funny video, then a product to purchase, an irrelevant notification, another valuable post, an interesting post and an in-app link to a website. Apps are designed to suck as much attention out of us as possible.

Products are persuasively designed to influence people to participate in desired behaviors.  This type of persuasive design uses variable rewards or variable ratio schedules to latch onto the consumer. We are rewarded with something we like just the right amount of times to keep us motivated to keep scrolling. Yeah, we may get annoyed by an Ad, but we come to terms with sacrificing our attention to an Ad in exchange to see another valuable post.

In 2017, Sean Parker, a Facebook founder, spilled the tea that “the thought process [behind Facebook] was all about how we can consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible.” Certainly, this isn’t the people’s goal for using social media. *Automatically picks up phone*. Psychologist team up with tech companies to design software’s with the intention to get the viewer ‘hooked’.

This has become the average dynamic of our iPhone-to-consumer relationship. Specifically, the Apps we download and the notifications the iPhone reinforces. Of course, we think of our phone as our sidekick. It always shows up, with all the right answers.  It’s there through thick and thin. Not to mention it captures all or best and worst moments. It gets us. It knows what we like to see and what we don’t. It’s like an external brain that lives within a 2 feet radius of us, 24 hour a day, 7 days a week. Unless… God forbid, it cracks or dies and cues separation anxiety. *Knocks on wood*.

Forget the glorification. My phone went off nearly 10 times writing that paragraph alone. It’s begging for my attention. Light. Buzz. Ding. ‘Stop. Look! Someone’s typing…!!!! Never mind. Ding. Look! New Snap!’. It’s so annoying yet so tempting… And you know what I did… I picked that bastard up. It got me.

What do we do with all this information? Do we change our ways? Probably not. It’s important, at the very least, to be aware of how you interact with these technologies. Ask yourself if you are willingly giving your attention to them or are you being manipulated? Do you get a gold star?