On social media, we engage, post, and retweet regularly, hoping for the likes and comments that seem so prized. Instagram has created a virtual sweatshop of people diligently working to select just the right selfie with the perfect filter. We perform the endless scroll on Facebook to observe the curated lives of our friends while we curate our own lives for them. Within the past several years, many of us have developed the habit of doomscrolling, perusing our social media newsfeed for what we expect will be more bad news. It can become a regular diet of news regarding political turmoil, and economic and racial inequality, maybe garnished with a pandemic for good measure. We engage and reengage those within our echo chambers, receiving confirmation of our positions. Like those seeking attention through selfies, many within the echo chambers stretch the boundaries of the truth, using less than credible sources to gain affirmation within their tribe. The wildest conspiracy theories sometimes garner the highest amount of attention. In response, the algorithms serve us up more of it, basing new content in our newsfeeds upon what we have previously engaged.
Through the use of algorithms, YouTube recommends millions of videos to users based upon our previous viewing habits. As a platform that allows users to post content that has little to no vetting process, there is something for just about every mainstream and radicalized belief. With so many videos, the algorithms on YouTube are like a good waiter at an all‐you‐can‐eat pancake breakfast: serving you up more of exactly what you want, without judgment. We engage and reengage on social media for that dopamine high of receiving both new information as well as attention that comes in the form of likes and comments. We spend hours per day, logged in and sharing curated aspects of our lives, to get that dopamine hit and perhaps also searching for connectivity with others. There is a sad irony that billions of us are connected, yet so many feel isolated and alone. In many cases, we turn to social media for connection, sacrificing many forms of authenticity that come from shared experiences and deeper connections with friends and loved ones.
We generate more data than ever. According to the Data Never Sleeps 5.0 Report, from 2016 to 2018, we created 90% of all of the data ever created in the world in just two years. Every day, 1.5 billion people are on Facebook. Every second, 456,000 tweets and over four million YouTube videos are viewed. Every minute, we send 16 million text messages, swipe on Tinder close to one million times, and send over 150 million emails. Not long ago, the limits to our ability to create, learn, and experience were limited by a dearth of information. Now, in this information age, we are limited by our cognitive capacity to comprehend all of the information that is available to us on a daily basis. Networks, laptops, and smartphones have all evolved to have more capacity, with one notable exception: our brains. We are still functioning with the same brains that our ancestors used thousands of years ago for hunting and procreating and then hunting and procreating some more. With the expanded capacity of technology and all of the information that comes along with it, there is an incredible battle for perhaps your most prized possession: your attention.
A Scarcity of Attention
When I think of all the things in our world that compete for our attention, the first place that comes to mind is Times Square. It is a battlefield for attention where billboards are stacked upon one another using a variety of colors and flashing lights. There is flickering, neon, and other forms of luminescence all selling something, from Broadway shows to hamburgers and fancy red cars. These signs are positioned within every possible inch of our sightlines, all with the purpose of drawing our thoughts to their product or experience. Of course, I cannot forget the people dressed as furry cartoon characters that invite you to take a picture (yes, I have done it and there is photographic evidence of such an experience). But if you have had the opportunity to walk through Times Square, you might remember how difficult it was to focus on any one particular sign or activity. You could be fixated on an ad on a high‐definition screen but then suddenly become fixated on an even brighter set of lights. During the entire experience, you are likely focusing your attention on a variety of different sights and sounds, sometimes within the same second. Actually, you might walk away from Times Square and not be able to recall any of the individual ads or signs because there were so many stimuli and it was difficult to process any one particular item.
Most of our daily lives do not look anything like Times Square, but think of all of the activities, devices, and information sources that you come into contact with every day that, like those neon signs, all compete for your attention in one way or another. In his morning routine, Josh was devoting his attention towards multiple activities simultaneously. He has dressed himself for work many, many times and so therefore it requires very little thought or attention. He could get dressed while listening to the news or thinking about his day ahead. However, what if for the first time, he had to tie a bow tie? He might have difficulty listening to the weather while simultaneously focusing his attention on making that first perfect knot. Since it is a new (and complex) task, the bow tie would require additional attention that would take away from his ability to concentrate on anything else. In this case, Josh might ignore the news or even turn off the TV so he could focus on his bow tie. Attention is a zero‐sum game because we have only so much to give. If all of our attention is devoted to doing something, we cannot “dig deeper” and find more for something else. The popular analogy of our attention acting as a bucket of water is apt: every cup or spoonful of water that we take out leaves us less in the bucket, or in the case of attention, less to devote elsewhere to other things. So, if the amount of human attention is fixed, it is valuable, perhaps every bit as valuable as any other resource we can offer any other person or activity.
Herbert Simon, the Nobel Prize–winning economist and cognitive psychologist, was one of the first to articulate the basis for an attention economy. He suggested that “a wealth of information creates a scarcity of what that information consumes,” which is attention. Essentially, we pay for items not necessarily with money but with our attention. Websites and apps lure us to visit or stay on their platforms with catchy animations or lots of information crowded into one site, hoping that something will catch our eye and get us clicking further. With almost universal access to the internet, there is a wealth of information that is both free and accessible. At the same time, our cognitive capacity has not changed. Therefore, we have to make decisions regarding where we devote our attention.
Speaking of decisions, the buffet line at almost any Las Vegas casino is a fabulous place. These colossal gardens of gluttony offer nearly every type of food imaginable. However, our plates – and our stomachs – have only so much capacity. We cannot possibly consume all of the food that is available to us, so we have to make decisions. We can certainly sample a little bit of a lot of things, but we cannot expect to consume everything. Therefore, since we cannot have it all, we have to prioritize what we want, or perhaps need, the most. Like our plates and stomachs at the buffet, our cognitive capacity is limited. We have to consciously make decisions regarding the information we consume at any given time, filtering what we want and need from what we don't. Incidentally, making healthy choices for both information and buffets requires immense self‐discipline – and sometimes antacids afterwards!
What are your goals for today? What is it that you want to accomplish? Is there something that you want to experience, whether connecting with a close friend or feeling the burn of a great workout? What about your long‐term goals for yourself? Is it advancing in your career or developing deeper connections with those around you? Do you want to rebuild that old car that your father owned? Perhaps learn a musical instrument? We all have short‐ and long‐term goals for ourselves that relate to our personal and professional lives. In some cases, barriers to meeting those goals might be a shortage of time or money. It might be related to raising children, a new job, or caring for an aging parent. However, in many cases, the biggest hurdle to our goals is merely distraction. For me, I began to realize that technology was a big distraction: the 10, 20, or 30 times a day that I was mindlessly picking up my smartphone to scroll through a newsfeed or fire up the Twitter outrage machine. Initially, I thought that the reason why I wasn't reaching some of my goals was the usual “not enough time” or “things are busy at work.” As time went on, I began to reflect upon where I was devoting my attention and found that where I was investing much of it was wasteful. At the surface, it isn't that devoting enormous amounts of attention towards social media