The problem isn’t getting attention.
The problem is hurting attention in the quest to win it.
This is Attention Scarcity.
The human brain receives, at most, 20% of the body’s energy. Attention is biologically fixed, like any natural resource. But demands on attention have exploded. The result is attention scarcity: more content than people can process.
When attention is overloaded, people feel overwhelmed. They are more likely to tune information out, or opt out altogether. They engage less with information, share less, remember less.
But the attention economy – both the information ecosystem it represents, and the wider economy – is dependent on people’s engagement. And there are signs of disengagement everywhere.
Disengagement threatens everyone. Businesses will struggle to grow if they can’t reach customers. Media will struggle to reach audiences. Governments will not be able to reach citizens with critical information. Tech companies will too struggle to prove their worth: some will demonstrate reach but not value, but others will lose audiences when the last ditch tactics to keep them start to fail.
The solution is not tweaking metrics. The solution is Attention Awareness.
Attention is human nature – and one of our most valuable gifts.
Attention is spoken of as a single, definable force. It is not. It is a human phenomenon — a socially-activated, contextually-dependent biological quirk.
It is highly contextual, highly social, highly responsive, and a high user of bodily energy. And it renews, but slowly.
Though we wish it were voluntary and self-directed, we know it is not. Attention is instinctive and, mainly, involuntary.
Distractibility evolved as a survival mechanism, but is now routinely exploited in almost every aspect of our lives.