Economy of Attention

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The economy of attention , also known as the attention economy , is a concept of information economy that regards human attention as a scarce commodity , and uses economic theories to explain human behavior and information economy theses. With increasing networking and the new media , the costs for information and entertainment keep falling. Access is no longer limiting, but attention. It is a scarce resource , a coveted income, economic capital and social currency at the same time.

Concept history

Model by Georg Franck

The urban planner Georg Franck published a book in 1998 with the title Economy of Attention , in which he explains the cohesion of society through the exchange and management of attention . He starts from the constellation of a “mental capitalism ” that has largely broken away from a fixation on material production and consumption. The economy of attention coexists with the economy of money and competes with it. Attention is a scarce resource and a sought-after form of income. The different types of capital of attention are: prestige, reputation, prominence and fame.

“Getting other people's attention is the most irresistible of all drugs. Your reference outweighs any other income. That is why fame is above power, that is why wealth pales next to prominence. "

- Georg Franck : Economy of Attention , 1998

At the core of Franck's philosophical foundation is the orientation towards Heidegger's concept of Dasein , expanded to include an ethical perspective with the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas . His theory revolves around the individual's drive to play a role in another's consciousness. The questions about the reality content of the world and foreign consciousness are ignored by the functioning assumption of their existence. Similar to the struggle for recognition of Axel Honneth a human constant is thought that lies behind the seemingly dominant economic logic of exploitation. Therefore, the economy of attention is based on its own economy of self-esteem, which occupies a central position in Franck's book. The economy of self-esteem is based on the desire for attention and on the natural concern for self-worth. The maximization of self-worth is compared in a productive way with the economic benefit maximization and placed in a philosophical context.

For the embedding of the individual in society, Franck orients himself on numerous ideas and thoughts from sociology and philosophy, such as Mead's conception of the generalized other. Georg Franck diagnoses a social change and a historical transformation of the concept of prestige and thus ties in with the philosophical diagnoses of the times by Axel Honneth and Peter Sloterdijk . In some places the theses are so reminiscent of critical theory that one can even speak of a new edition of the concept of the culture industry . The diagnosis of time, which is still relevant today, consists in the fact that the economy of attention has advanced to a principle of modern self-esteem. Whether through castings, social media or classic (self-) marketing, by attracting attention, modern people increase and maximize their individual self-esteem.

“There is the economy of exchange and there is the economy of giving. When we talk about economy, we almost only talk about swapping and hardly ever about giving. That has something to do with the economy itself, but above all with those who talk about it. "

- Georg Franck : Economy of Attention , 1998

The logic of economic exploitation is thus traced back to a rhetorical modernization, which Franck's economy of attention follows. Attention, however, only attains the character of a tradable, objective good when it is viewed as an abstract quantity in large quantities. In doing so, however, it also loses its advantage over money, since it originally does not matter from whom this attention is drawn. Therefore, mental capitalism has no automatic moral advantage over material.

application

Media and advertising

In the mass media and pop culture, attention is actually accumulated as a capital factor. In the area of ​​advertising, also specifically monetized in criteria of reach.

science

In the search for truth and objectively verifiable realities, science makes use of a mechanism in which knowledge production is organized in a decentralized manner, linked via "markets", but without being dependent on the motivation of monetary income. Reputation is the consolidated income of collegial attention. The attention here is not yet arbitrary as to their origin. The reputation of the person giving the attention flows directly into their value. At the same time, those who exchange attention are dependent on each other: as competition and reciprocal suppliers. The most important form of expression here is the quotation. With the reference and mention of other scientists, your own scarce attention serves as a payment to your account of notability, in exchange for the use of your findings. At the same time, the mutual calling and criticism among each other depict the actual production process of “knowledge”. It is true that there is competition among each other for attention and its form of accumulation of “prestige”. However, via the markets of recognition and an objectivistic rationality, this is aligned with the common goal of producing knowledge. The greatest punishment for a scientific work and its author is therefore not devastating criticism, but complete disregard.

"The scientific enterprise is also an economy of knowledge-producing attention organized on an industrial scale."

- Georg Franck : Economy of Attention , 1998

politics

With Axel Honneth and Georg Franck it can be stated that human activity takes place against the background of a competition for attention. At the level of society (s), progress in the sense of breaking through existing structures and establishing new ones can be recognized in such “struggles”, which are based on diverse visions of the good life beyond the existing value system. In the process of constantly reformulating validity claims and the delimitation of the existing, from a historical perspective, new forms of society and old ones are constantly being discarded. At the level of organizations and collectives, agents of social change ( change agents ) act in creative destruction in the sense of Schumpeter : Structures are questioned and new designs of needs and their satisfaction are implemented in markets and in the public.

If the concept of an “economy of attention” is transferred to the organization of politics, this appears in a new light for the citizen. As a “postmodern reconciliation of bourgeois and citoyen ”, civil society empowers itself to regain creative power. Every form of social commitment can be brought to market in the economy of attention and is therefore up for voting. Both the organization of attention for social problems and the recognition of practical solutions to problems link politics with the world of citizens. Since collected attention is at the same time capital , a lively market arises in the economy of attention. For example, compete for the public's favor with social business approaches to solving social problems. The contrast between private and public life is made politically fruitful as a competition for attention between private and common good.

The scarcity and desirability of attention and recognition enable them to serve as currency and to create the economy of attention described. This is still most fully implemented in science, but the increasing orientation of consumers to the social side effects of their consumption also point in this direction. Negative attention, e.g. B. when uncovering scandals, is at least one cost factor for companies. At the same time, however, the problem remains that although attention is scarce and coveted, it is not a homogeneous good, such as B. Money. So it makes a difference where it comes from and on what occasion it was created, which in turn cannot be seen in the money. This makes the concept more difficult, but not impossible, as countless approaches on the Internet show. Here, the economy of attention is on the advance and is measured in “likes” or “friends” or in the number of forum posts and comments. The social networks and the established casting culture on German television are the best evidence that receiving massive amounts of attention has become a principle of modern self-esteem.

criticism

Roger McNamee , one of Facebook's earliest investors , warns that the message-based attention economy endangers public health and democracy . He referred to the detailed knowledge about the users that arises through their use of social networks such as Facebook and Alphabet using mobile devices (smartphones). In the attention economy, providers vied to offer the user exactly "what he wanted", and users' attention is most captivated by content that appeals to the emotions and not to the mind. This principle, coupled with detailed knowledge of the users, would create filter bubbles around every user. More than ever, these would reinforce preconceived notions and give users the illusion that they all think the same way as they do. As a result, beliefs would become more rigid and extreme, and openness to new ideas and even facts would decrease. McNamee argued that attention economy technology made school children dependent, facilitated racial discrimination and was used to manipulate elections. The company has regulations to counter this, but does not use them sufficiently.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Bernardy 2014, pp. 85–91.
  2. ↑ Bernardy 2014, p. 61f.
  3. ↑ Bernardy 2014, pp. 97f.
  4. ↑ Franck 2007, p. 7
  5. ↑ Franck 2007, p. 37.
  6. ↑ Franck 2007, p. 12
  7. ↑ Gail 2012, p. 74.
  8. ↑ Bernardy 2014, p. 175.
  9. ↑ Simon Hurtz: Dear humanity, we are sorry. In: www.sueddeutsche.de. February 14, 2018, accessed December 2, 2018 . P. 6 .
  10. ^ Roger McNamee: How Facebook and Google threaten public health - and democracy. In: The Guardian. November 11, 2017, accessed December 2, 2018 .