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Ecology of Attention
Information overload, the shallows, weapons of mass distraction, the googlization of minds: countless commentators condemn the flood of images and information, from television to video games and the internet, that dooms us to a pathological attention deficit. In this new book, cultural theorist Yves Citton cuts through the tide of these standard laments to offer a new perspective on the problem of attention in the digital age. Phrases like 'paying attention' or ‘investing one’s attention’ attest to our mistaken belief that attention can be conceptualized in narrow economic terms. We are constantly drawn towards attempts to quantify and commodify attention, even down to counting the number of likes a picture receives on Facebook or a video on YouTube. By contrast, Citton argues that we should conceptualise attention as a kind of ecology. We must see that the many different environments...
