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The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:45 pm
by MaceFace
A FEW years ago, in a supermarket, I swiped my bank card to pay for groceries. I watched the little screen, waiting for its prompts. During the intervals between swiping my card, confirming the amount and entering my PIN, I was shown advertisements. Clearly some genius had realized that a person in this situation is a captive audience.
Attention is a resource; a person has only so much of it. And yet we’ve auctioned off more and more of our public space to private commercial interests, with their constant demands on us to look at the products on display or simply absorb some bit of corporate messaging. Lately, our self-appointed disrupters have opened up a new frontier of capitalism, complete with its own frontier ethic: to boldly dig up and monetize every bit of private head space by appropriating our collective attention. In the process, we’ve sacrificed silence — the condition of not being addressed. And just as clean air makes it possible to breathe, silence makes it possible to think.
What if we saw attention in the same way that we saw air or water, as a valuable resource that we hold in common? Perhaps, if we could envision an “attentional commons,” then we could figure out how to protect it...
Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/opini ... ntion.html
Good article here that considers attention as a resource that is continually depleted through advertising, without consent, leaving less for the individual to dedicate to their own endeavours and the intangible impact that this has on ourselves and society as a whole.
Have we brought this upon ourselves? Is advertising as bad as the author portrays?
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:50 pm
by finji
Interesting, reminds me of that app ( I think it was for Google glass) that censored logos in real time.
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:52 pm
by Harkat
That's cool as fuck.
Even though google glass looks incredibly dorky, its so cool. Just gotta wait for that to be implanted straight into mans eyes
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:02 pm
by finji
well it wasn't really an app so to speak, it was a simple PoC that only worked with a few select logos. I can imagine someone will make a fully fledged service in the future though if wearable tech becomes the norm..
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:48 pm
by AxeD
Yeah but the article is about how all of that nonsense has a bad effect on our society.
Really the only thing worse would be having it projected right on your eyes no?
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:52 pm
by Harkat
cant stop the future bro
besides the future is cool as fuck
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:59 pm
by butter_man
I'll kick up a fuss when coca-cola spray up a mountain, till then..
have fun with your ~inner city problems. bahhhh
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 11:26 pm
by Phigure
here in the US, gas stations are starting to put TV screens on all the pumps where they play some weird pseudo news program plastered with ads. straight out of some satirical dystopian scifi film
edit: check out lines at the cash register too
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:12 am
by ultraspatial
it is as bad as that imo simply because of how violent and intrusive it is. and they know it. i mean, anti-advertising is used as advertising - starting from pay-per-view channels that don't need adverts to websites offering ad-free versions in exchange for memberships.
even scarier imo is corporate bullshit that crept its way into out personal lives like personal branding - which for the average joe who doesn't own a multiple businesses means consuming and defining our image through the products we consume (or don't consume); human billboards in a way.
and even if you do produce something - say clothing, cause it's the easiest and most obvious example - you're still in the same situation. i guess the only sort of loophole would be to make shit for yourself without any desire to expand/profit.
/ramblings
but yeah "attentional commons" is definitely something that needs to be institutionalised. as well as other forms of protection from advertising like controlling the number of ads that can be used in a certain area or in a period of time
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:32 am
by Harkat
I hate it when they put ad TVs (instead of rolling billboards) on Oslo subway stations
You cant even sit and look straight ahead without some stupid movie trailer invading your eyes, so so bad
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 1:20 am
by OGLemon
I can't wait until I can download adblocker for my brain
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 1:34 am
by Harkat
I cant wait for the future man
also downloading drugs off Russian websites directly into your synapses
oh fuck I neuro shot some dodgy shit at
http://123realmandy-now.ru don't use that one mate
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:01 am
by test_recordings
It's happening in Japan too, but in other places like train turnstiles. Sometimes it's put in a slightly off-angle space, but then it's signposted with something like 'Mind your head!' so you have to look at it. Fucking annoying.
Also, pumping out smells of the bakery is a bitch.
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:21 am
by hifi
its like that movie adworld
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:44 am
by faultier
tbf, most people in the street/public transports/etc these days are willfully staring at the screen of their smartphones/tablets
so much for dedicating their precious limited amount of attention to their own endeavours
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:38 pm
by hubb
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:50 pm
by SignalRecon
Phigure wrote:here in the US, gas stations are starting to put TV screens on all the pumps where they play some weird pseudo news program plastered with ads. straight out of some satirical dystopian scifi film
edit: check out lines at the cash register too
I've seen those. It's like a non-funny onion news network dedicated to dick-pill grade product peddling.
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 2:20 pm
by hubb
need to take it on like graffiti does in the public space
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 2:52 pm
by MaceFace
hubb wrote:need to take it on like graffiti does in the public space
Something like this?
http://weburbanist.com/2012/01/16/art-n ... takeovers/
This has really got me thinking tbh (oo careful). The expectation that we should just put up with it isn't right.
Re: The Cost of Paying Attention
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 3:39 pm
by AxeD
Harkat wrote:I hate it when they put ad TVs (instead of rolling billboards) on Oslo subway stations
You cant even sit and look straight ahead without some stupid movie trailer invading your eyes, so so bad
Can't stop the cool future though.
Personally, I hope I don't have to think for myself in a few years. My Google contacts
should sync with facebook and tell me who everyone is when I see them. They should
also track my location and tell me when I'm going to be late for my appointments.