Attention Spam

The thing that's shifted in my lifetime is shame as a public mechanism for affecting change. I still think that it has a massive effect (especially on men) in the personal realm, but because of news cycles, algorithmic feeds, and the pace of modern life, we live in a world of what this article calls "attention spam".

Those in power no longer need to try to get away with anything. They don’t have to answer for their actions, because no one is asking them. They simply outlast every negative headline until a new one arrives.

This dynamic was not invented at the White House. Donald Trump is the beneficiary of a society-wide phenomenon, no one has the attention to focus on anything anymore. No one reads anymore. Academics cite statistics that the general public do not read books, but the same attack on the public attention span has come for them. Academics barely read each other’s work. Teachers use AI to grade papers written by AI.

The president, alongside other powerful leaders, have made a calculated bet: as long as there is always a new headline, the old one will not matter. A pyramid scheme on your psyche. A confidence game on your cognitive function. They don’t even bother justifying ongoing corruption and war. The president is betting his personal future on making his administration too big to prosecute and ensuring the public is too distracted to demand otherwise.

Source: Original article · Are.na block · Politics channel