The Birth of the Attention Economy
The Birth of the Attention Economy
The article discusses the 19th-century rise of cheap, daily newspapers as the first true attention economy, which reshaped how Americans engaged with the world. It draws parallels between the historical anxieties over newspapers diminishing intellect and contemporary concerns about modern technology like the internet and AI, questioning if we are reaching an endgame where deep thought becomes redundant.
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the retelling of the discourse around the problems of newspapers and what it will do to writing and reading definitely overlaps with conversations today about netflix and LLMs and 24 hour news cycles.
the problems have gotten bigger, though the warning of demise don't exactly play out either.
while too little and too much clearly trade-off too much, the spectrum in between is quite massive and fraught with hidden trade-offs.
nonetheless, this was a good reminder that the conversation will persist and reactive counterbalancing forces are necessary.
i've been spending efforts moving more information into timely digests to move the needle directionally and it feels pretty good.
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