Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor and author of The Attention Merchants, delves into the hidden effects of constant attention demands in our lives. He discusses how advertising shapes our decisions, tracing its roots from wartime propaganda to modern clickbait. Tim shares fascinating stories, like early suffragettes promoting cigarettes and the rise of Consumer Reports against ads. He emphasizes the importance of creating ‘sacred spaces’ and highlights the need for genuine human connections to reclaim our attention in a monetized world.
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insights INSIGHT
Attention as a Harvested Resource
Attention is a resource that businesses harvest from us like commodities.
We are the resource being exploited by the 'attention merchants'.
insights INSIGHT
Attention Determines Life Options
What we pay attention to shapes what options we perceive in life.
Attention sets the menu for our decisions and identity.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Benjamin Day's Penny Press Innovation
Benjamin Day created the penny press in the 1830s by selling newspapers at a loss but with exciting stories.
He made money by reselling large audiences' attention to advertisers, inventing an ad-supported business model.
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This book, based on fifteen years of field research in Las Vegas, explores how the mechanical rhythm of electronic gambling machines induces a trancelike state known as the 'machine zone.' In this state, gamblers' daily worries and bodily awareness fade away, and they continue to play not to win, but to maintain the state of continuous play. Schüll delves into the strategic design of game algorithms, machine ergonomics, casino architecture, and 'ambience management,' all aimed at maximizing 'time on device.' The book also examines the broader social and cultural implications of machine gambling, including the debate over whether addiction stems from the consumer, the product, or the interplay between the two[1][4][5].
The Master Switch
The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
Tim Wu
In 'The Master Switch,' Tim Wu explores the pattern of how new communications technologies are introduced by innovators and eventually coopted by major corporate interests, leading to centralized control and the loss of openness and freedom. The book chronicles this cycle through various mediums such as radio, telegraph, telephone, and film, and questions whether the internet will follow the same path. Wu advocates for a 'Separations Principle' to keep content, communications, and electronics industries separate to prevent monopolistic control and ensure the continued openness of the information economy.
Who controls the Internet?
Illusions of a Borderless World
Jack Goldsmith
Tim Wu
In this provocative book, Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu tell the story of the Internet's challenge to governmental rule in the 1990s and the ensuing battles with governments worldwide. The authors discuss how the original vision of the Internet as a liberating force from government and borders has been uprooted as governments assert their power. They explore cases such as Google's struggles with the French government, Yahoo's capitulation to the Chinese regime, and eBay's struggles with fraud. The book argues that the future of the Internet will reflect the interests of powerful nations and their conflicts, while also highlighting the rediscovery of the importance of territorial government and the rule of law in controlling the Internet.
The Attention Merchants
The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
Tim Wu
In 'The Attention Merchants', Tim Wu explores the history and impact of the industries that feed on human attention. Starting from the 19th century with Benjamin Day's penny newspapers, Wu traces the evolution of advertising through various media, including radio, television, and the internet. He argues that the basic business model of 'attention merchants' has remained constant: offering free diversion in exchange for moments of attention, which are then sold to advertisers. The book also examines the societal and psychological effects of this attention economy and the various revolts against it[2][3][4].
What is the hidden impact of constant demands on our attention? How does it affect how we think, how we act, and how we live?
We have clickbait on our mobile devices and computer screens, ads on buses, and commercials on radio and TV. But as Tim Wu, author and Professor at Columbia University Law School points out, this is a fairly recent development that has turned into a constant monetization of our attention.
Tim is the author of three books: Who Controls the Internet?, The Master Switch, and most recently, The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads. He has written for the New Yorker, the Washington Post, Forbes, and Slate magazine. He points out that this constant barrage of messaging actually shapes who we are, often without our realizing it.
Highlights from our conversation include:
How does what we are exposed to determine what we decide?
The connection between early war propaganda and the rise of advertising
How the science of advertising was built on engineering demand
Why early suffragettes were hired to sell cigarettes
How the Paris poster period led to an early revolt against the attention merchants
How Consumer Reports grew out of frustration with ads
The original remote control took the shape of a gun to blow away commercials
Bringing TVs into our homes meant attention merchants now had more access
1950s provided a captive prime time TV programming audience for advertisers
How advertising convinces us that to be individuals we need to buy things
How novelty and unpredictability makes things addictive
How idealistic tech founders work against own values in reliance on ads
Tech innovation of today focused more on getting inside our minds and featuring ads
Why harvesting captures so well how our attention is sought and used
How such a tiny sector of the economy has such a big impact on us and how we live
How spending time with others is actually a revolt against advertising
Where are the sacred spaces in our lives?
What is the role of public virtue in decision making today?
Episode Links
Tim Wu
@superwuster
William James
Benjamin Day
Herbert Kitchener
George Washington Hill
French Poster Period
Singletasking by Devora Zack
Timothy Leary
Mad Men
Coca-Cola Commercial
Charlie Brown Christmas Special
Space Invaders
You’ve Got Mail
Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schull
Buzzfeed
Netflix
Temenos
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