The Ecology of Attention

by Yves Citton

Information overload, the shallows, weapons of mass distraction, the googlization of countless commentators condemn the flood of images and information that dooms us to a pathological attention deficit.In this new book, cultural theorist Yves Citton goes against the tide of these standard laments to offer a new perspective on the problem of attention in the digital age. Phrases like �paying attention� and �investing one�s attention� attest to our mistaken belief that attention can be conceptualized in narrow economic terms. We are constantly drawn towards attempts to quantify and commodify attention, even down to counting the number of 'likes' a picture receives on Facebook or a video on YouTube. By contrast, Citton argues that we should conceptualize attention as a kind of ecology and examine how the many different environments to which we are exposed - from advertising to literature, search engines to performance art - condition our attention in different ways.In a world where the demands on our attention are ever-increasing, this timely and original book will be of great interest to students and scholars in media and communications and in literary and cultural studies, and to anyone concerned about the long-term consequences of the profusion of images as well as digital content in the age of the internet.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Sociology, Psychology, Cultural, Technology, France

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 2014

About the author

Yves Citton is professor of Literature and Media at the Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint Denis and executive director of the Ecole Universitaire de Recheche ArTeC. He is the author of a dozen books, and has taught for 13 years at the Université Grenoble Alpes and for 12 years in the department of French and Italian of the University of Pittsburgh, PA. He received his PhD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Reviews

[Wendy Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a class I'm auditing. Main takeaway: we are moving from an economy of material goods (governed by the scarcity of factors of production) toward an economy of attention (governed by the scarcity of capacity for the reception of cultural goods). This book is nicely grounded in critical theory and does a great job of documenting the interactions between capitalism & this new attention economy (he calls it an ecology). I particularly enjoyed the lucid analysis of the attention-driven facets of the tech industry.

[Jerome · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'est le comble de pas réussir à finir un livre sur l'attention

[Ben G]

Definitely a lot of sociological philosophical mumbo jumbo to sort through but this was a really interesting book. It was elucidating to read some of the academic thought behind sentiments like slow living and similar that we hear today. If this book looks interesting to you, you could also get away with just reading the conclusion and skipping the first chunk.

[Alienor Pezot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maintenant je fais attention à canaliser mon attention et à ne pas faire attention à ce à quoi je prête pas attention

[PPEsquire · Rating 5 out of 5]

En prenant l’attention comme objet d’étude philosophique, Citton en fait un hyperobjet qui amalgame et dépasse l’économie pure, la sociologie politique ou la science cognitive. Le fait que notre attention, limitée par défaut, soit devenue une denrée rare - pour le politique et le publicitaire mais aussi pour des causes plus nobles ou pour notre éducation - n’est pas forcément un objet de lamentation. Nous le savons et nous pouvons en faire une force en créant une société qui ne lutte pas pour accaparer notre attention mais cherche à la stimuler.
Un appel profond à cesser à réinventer notre rapport au temps, le nôtre et celui des autres.
#

[Martín Ochoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"(Internet) PageRank only finds what we are looking for because it aligns our individual attention with the dominant directions of our collective attention. I am led to see what the greater proportion of my fellows have seen, there were they have chosen to look, (click)"

IE: What is collectively unseen simply disappears from the realm of our existence.

"How can you take advantage of the vectoral power of the digital without allowing yourself to be imprisoned in the scalar cages of digitalization? Only the art of interference, the elusive strength of hackers, can rise such a challenge, which is at the heart of the attention ecology in the edge of electrification"

"Is it your attention , which you are mobilizing right now, (as you read this sentence), that is now the scarcest and more fervently desired resource of this hyper-connected world"

"Attention is the hard currency of cyberspace. (..) Prominence is the status of being a major earner of attention. The prominents are the capitalist of attention economy"

"Attention only becomes a currency when it's measured in homogeneous units and made circulate via anonymous acts (...) The reinvestment of the attraction return, creates 'mental' currency in the same way banks creates money"

"At this first level, the distribution of attention is based, therefore, on a logic of competition. I'm only attentive to what we pay attention to collectively. I valorize what I pay attention to and I only pay attention to what I valorize"

[Suzanne Arcand]

Intéressant! Soutient la thèse que notre attention est une denrée rare que se dispute les différents médias. L'auteur y classe l'attention entre les différents modes : collectif, conjoint, individuant. Je l'ai lu dans le cadre d'un cours universitaire et il m'a bien aidé à structurer ma pensée.

Cependant, il est aussi pertinent dans un contexte non universitaire, puisqu'il nous amène à réfléchir à ce à quoi nous portons attention ; à la façon dont les informations qui nous parviennent sont pré formatées et pré sélectionner pour nous ; aux "pauvres" de l'attention qui, justement, n'arrivent plus à capter notre attention.

[Serkan Kasapoglu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just read the Chapter 2, but it gave me headaches. There are some good points, but more groundless assumptions.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ironic a book studying attention is written so poorly and needlessly theoretical it makes it near impossible to focus on it. Citton needs to touch grass.

[Thaïs · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Butylphenyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essai passionnant à mille lieues des constats alarmistes mais stériles qui fleurissent partout et qui nous invite à réfléchir à comment “habiter l’intermittence entre hyper focalisation et hypo-focalisation” de notre attention.

Avec, entre autres, 2 problématiques notables :
- Que pouvons-nous faire collectivement de nos attentions individuelles ?
- Peut-on espérer voir les cultures numériques court-circuiter les impasses du capitalisme attentionnel soumis à la logique financière de l’audimat ?

On peut reprocher à l'auteur son abus de nomenclature (déformation professionnelle ?) mais l’ensemble est vraiment pertinent et enrichissant pour qui n’a pas peur des concepts et, accessoirement, de ressortir d’une lecture avec une bibliographie longue comme le bras.