Are We Moving From Attention Markets to the Curse of Bigness?

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In some ways, we are now switching channels from the attention merchants to the curse of bigness. And i think there is a particular concern that i have with the concentration of the power to do so in a smaller number of entities. We've had totalitarian regimes which seized that power, or the sovit union and used it to every extent possible. But we're building the mechanism for it when we allow the monopoly form to come to dominate attention markets were creating the interstructure for control of the masses. I know we are the resource, and i think it takes its toll.

An information system that relies on advertising was not born with the Internet. But social media platforms have taken it to an entirely new level, becoming a major force in how we make sense of ourselves and the world around us. Columbia law professor Tim Wu, author of The Attention Merchants and The Curse of Bigness, takes us through the birth of the eyeball-centric news model and ensuing boom of yellow journalism, to the backlash that rallied journalists and citizens around creating industry ethics and standards. Throughout the 20th century, radio, television, and even posters elicited excitement, hope, fear, skepticism and greed, and people worked together to create a patchwork of regulation and behavior that attempted to point those tools in the direction of good. The Internet has brought us to just such a crossroads again, but this time with global consequences that are truly life-and-death.