The attention economy

In many ways, this has been the building block and valuation of how we exchange ideas within the constructs of social layers and networks. The premise for this exchange is rather simple; it is our scarce resource of time in a world beset by information overload. Contrary to what some may see as yet another buzzword by social media marketing personas, attention as a commodity was studied back in the early 1970's by the likes of Herman Simon who commented,

“…in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”

This has giver a rise to new professions as well. Brokerages and their employees (more commonly known as curators) scan through the feed of vast data, filtering and disseminating ideas and information that is designated as worthwhile, or valuable. Conceptually, this is no different than handing over controls to your favorite television shows to a provider (ie Comcast, Time-Warner, etc), or the rise in Communities (as seen in Google+). Collaboration or cooperative efforts, are also on the rise — as solopreneurs find themselves overwhelmed by a perceived lack of complete skill sets to offer a fickle and much larger consumer-centrist and time limited populace.

The challenge to these communities, communes, and collaborative efforts are already being felt too, as soft volleys across the bow are lobbed by neighboring factions. Small gangs gather around the campfires of new broadcast methodologies (such as Google’s Hangouts/Hangouts on Air), while making indirect references and innuendos of expertise and authority (and the lack thereof), becoming economic indicators in this much larger and new infrastructure.

Another indication of threats within the attention economy, is that time, as the basis for a wallet of this currency is limited. The idea that choices of how one can spend time and attention is viewed as infinite. Then the act of focusing attention (even if only for a split second) on written word, imagery, and video streams become the economic value most sought. This is the essence of a populist notion that if you can get them to pay attention, you can get them to spend their money on your goods or services provided.

The downside to this “attention economy” is it is already already running on a deficit. By 2015, Americans will consume an average of fifteen and a half hours of media per day, according to a recent study by USC’s Marshall School of Business.

If you combine that metric with the 8.7 hours of sleep Americans get per night (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) you quickly see that, the public is never NOT EXPOSED to some form of media data stream battling for attention. Ultimately, attention is not free. There is a finite pool of time for entities to draw upon when consumers freely pour sentence after sentence, hour upon hour into status updates, or solicitations of a friend’s endorsement and approval.

Epilogue

As attention is now a centralized unit of economic value, rest assured that price and calculated valuation wars are on the horizon. Large and small business will fall to the ideals of venture capitalists adopting the stance summed up by Kevin O’Leary,

“Business is war. I go out there, I want to kill the competitors. I want to make their lives miserable. I want to steal their market share. I want them to fear me and I want everyone on my team thinking we’re going to win.”

This leads me to believe that while small businesses as well as larger corporations plant their grand fields of expertise in varied online presence endeavors, the real powerhouses will in fact be the brokers and their brokerage firms who disseminate the data in the most timely and appropriately tailored means and platforms in a deficited economic macrocosm.

~ owen