Attention (wk. 6)

This week's readings revolve around the complicated relationship between attention and information with regards to the internet and web 2.0. Attention is the time we lend to certain priorities. It is claimed in the readings that attention is the "new hard currency" of the internet age and that it must be treated as that - a currency. The difficult part, as explained in the readings, is filtering through the massive amount of information available to us and prioritising which pieces of information are relevant and worthy of our attention. This was described by Howard Rheingold as 'crap detection'. This is how the currency argument can be explained. Whereas in conventional markets, the seller is primarily concerned with the customer's money, in the internet market the provider is aiming to get the reader's attention among the thousands, sometimes millions, of other competitors - they can do this by presenting the most attractive, relevant, efficient and/or credible information. This is competition in the internet age. This relates perfectly to publics and publishing because the publics are the users of the internet whose attention is seen to be scarce. It is a commodity that is highly sought after in the same way money is in a capitalist system. The publishing of online material must be done in a way that is highly efficient and attractive in order to secure the attention of the consumer. The more information, the less attention there is to spare.