Paying attention
In the digital age, attention might be considered one of the most valuable currencies. Google turns your attention into profit. As do actors, rock stars and athletes. Some things cause us to pay attention. We can cause others to pay attention to us. There is a strong correlation in the digital age between those who are net attractors of attention and wealth.
Possibly attention is a proxy for the better known currency called time. The ability to make others expend their limited time to your advantage may be considered a form of power.
Like eating, we should be attentive to what we consume. Life today is such that we can spend most of our time engaged in social media, video games, work or in the pursuit of goals that we believe will provide us with fulfilment and / or social status.
Attention can be thought of as a muscle in that the more we use it the stronger it becomes. The more we allow ourselves to be sucked into the agenda of the attention acquirers, for example Youtube, the more we are living our lives as intended by a corporation.
We live in a world where there has never been more opportunity to squander our attention. In fact having so many attention diversion opportunities enables us to sidestep the more challenging activity of paying attention to reality.
In this respect succumbing to stimulating content can be thought of as an addiction. Similarly overly focusing on our career to the detriment of our health and relationships might be an indicator of addiction / a life out of balance.
Netflix doesn’t care. And nor should it. Much like wine, it is a treat in small quantities and like most things, it will kill you if you consume enough of it.
‘Death by Netflix’ is unlikely to be inscribed on one’s death certificate. But your video ‘over consumption’ may well have played a part in your demise.
This is of course being a little dramatic, and a little unfair on Netflix. My real message is that we need to be mindful of where we place our attention. There is no harm enjoying cat videos. Sometimes a little distraction can help reset our minds, which in turn can lead to greater clarity.
The point being that how you use your time and what you pay attention to should be a conscious decision. We hear of the digital divide. The ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ being separated by the resources they have at their disposal. If we scratch below the surface we will find that it is actually a demarcation between those that are net attention attractors and those who are net attraction consumers.
Which one are you?
