My attention span is struggling, help, please

existing in the era of “brain rot”

Photo by Lena Taranenko on Unsplash

“The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.” — William James

Attention is the single most valuable resource of the 21st century. Our attention is the model on which modern capitalism operates.

Corporations need our attention, which is why they’re willing to spend vast sums of money on advertising until we finally start to care.

Creators at the top of their game spend hours trying to gain and compete for your attention.

Think YouTube: when you search for something, it’s a battle of thumbnails and titles.

Think TikTok: it’s a struggle for the first 5-second hooks.

Think Medium: it’s a contest of titles, cover images, and the first sentences.

Artists need attention, writers need attention, and people, in general, need attention now more than ever. We are living in the attention economy.

But…

Our attention is diminishing. Yes, this isn’t unheard of; the most valuable resource the world is competing for it’s undoing.

I was on YouTube the other day, scrolling through some movie critics who were commenting…