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Lawrence Nault- Stone & SignalDo not fall into the well of acrimony, where outrage echoes like the horns of Jericho. I’ve dipped my cup there too.It isn’t your content being buried — it’s your kindness. Platforms reward outrage. Offer compassion anyway.Full reflection: <a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/lawrencenault/p/we-dont-allow-people-to-take-actions" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://open.substack.com/pub/lawrencenault/p/we-dont-allow-people-to-take-actions</a><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/SocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#SocialMedia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Algorithms" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Algorithms</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/MutualAid" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MutualAid</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Compassion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Compassion</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BeKindOnline" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#BeKindOnline</a>

Mark T. TomczakWhen I think about capitalism, trade, and meaning in life, I think sometimes about Second Life.Second Life invented its own currency (the "Lindy"). They have a real-world meaning: they buy exclusive-rights server time on a chunk of the shared simulation that makes up the game world. Essentially, in a virtual universe the finite resources are time and real-estate and the Lindy buys one.But, of course... Lots of people have no particular reliable way to make them. You can create art or scripts for people, but you're competing with every other Second Life User if you do that, and each one of them has an infinite-copying machine to make as many clones of their one creative work as they want as fast as the simulation can support. So good luck with that.So among other things that cropped up: some players with Lindys made seating space (beach towels, cafe tables, the like) with a few Lindys in them and a scripted rule: you sit there. Every hour or so, you get paid one Lindy for your time.Why?Well, there were some most-users-in-a-sim metrics that people paying to control a sim cared about, and making people hang out was a good way to boost the numbers.I'm thinking about that today: how when trade breaks down because there's a fundamental lack of tradeable goods (or because manufacturing-cost models and collapse of space creates an incredibly winner-take-all market), time is always something everyone has and you can always pay for it, even if you're literally paying someone to just sit still and do nothing.I'm thinking about it while I consider what percentage of questions on Reddit might be ChatGPT prompts fed directly into the machine, pulling responses from real people.To train a machine.Or for the zing of engagement.Or literally for the lulz.And now nearly nobody pays for Reddit, so the currency is the ability demonstrated by the creators to make people hang out, make them keep typing, make them stay on the beach.To the extent you find the Second Life beach-towel idea disquieting, or odd, or horrifying...... maybe gut check and confirm your day-to-day paid job isn't a glorified beach towel.And maybe check under your ass to see if you're sitting on one right now.<a href="https://mastodon.fixermark.com/tags/SecondLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#SecondLife</a> <a href="https://mastodon.fixermark.com/tags/Attentioneconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Attentioneconomy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.fixermark.com/tags/Reddit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Reddit</a> <a href="https://mastodon.fixermark.com/tags/Mastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Mastodon</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™🧠💡🎯 The eggheads at McKinsey say it's not how long they look, it's how deep it sticks. One second of real focus beats a minute of glazed eyes. Attention ain't cheap, it's precious. The smart money's buying quality, not noise. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-attention-equation-winning-the-right-battles-for-consumer-attention" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-attention-equation-winning-the-right-battles-for-consumer-attention</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™Imagine closing your eyes after scrolling too long. The shapes behind your eyelids are still luminous, negative imprints of a thousand images. That residue is the new unconscious: bright, restless, algorithmic. We are not haunted by technology. We are haunted through it. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Hauntology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Hauntology</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/MediaEcology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MediaEcology</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Hyperreality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Hyperreality</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/CriticalTheory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#CriticalTheory</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/DigitalCulture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DigitalCulture</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™Detox culture pretends escape is possible. Delete the app, retreat to nature , even that’s content now. Disconnection as performance. Hauntology teaches us: ghosts don’t leave; they change medium. You can log off, but not out. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Hauntology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Hauntology</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™What was once communication has become liturgy. Each like, each outrage, an offering to the algorithmic pantheon. The Attention Economy isn’t a marketplace. It’s a temple disguised as one. Its gods are statistical, opaque, and everywhere. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™Adorno called culture “the dreamlife of capitalism.” That dream has become lucid. The spectacle doesn’t just entertain, it learns. Debord’s gaze was one-way. Now it’s mutual. Narcissus doesn’t drown; he monetizes the reflection. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™McKinsey calls it “attention held,” but that’s a euphemism for captivity. You are no longer a consumer; you are a behavioral derivative. Your impulses traded like futures. Each notification extracts another atom of presence. The transaction feels like participation. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™If the 20th century commodified labor, the 21st commodified focus. The Attention Economy is high-frequency trading of the psyche. Every app competes not for time, but for continuity, the seamless illusion of immersion. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™Every design choice — the red notification bubble, the infinite scroll — is a microclimate engineered to harvest attention. We’ve become a new species: Homo algorithmicus, whose emotional metabolism runs on engagement metrics. To feel is to refresh. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™You don’t need to believe the simulation; you just need to engage. In hyperreality, truth is irrelevant. What matters is circulation. Attention has replaced ontology. To exist is to trend; to vanish is to stop rendering. <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Hyperreality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Hyperreality</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™OpenAI now partners with Anduril Industries to embed its systems into war-machines. Even algorithmic compassion is weaponized. 🧠💥 <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AlgorithmicPower" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AlgorithmicPower</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AIWarfare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AIWarfare</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-enters-silicon-valleys-hot-new-business-war-7beccf6e" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-enters-silicon-valleys-hot-new-business-war-7beccf6e</a>

𝕯𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖘𝖈𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑™The design of distraction: the Center for Humane Technology maps how the tech we love is the tech that demands us. Attention isn’t given—it’s taken. 🕳️📡 <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HumanTech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#HumanTech</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/DigitalHabit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DigitalHabit</a> <a href="https://humanetech.com/youth/the-attention-economy" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://humanetech.com/youth/the-attention-economy</a>

Miguel Afonso Caetano"Put bluntly: in the West, the smartphone is the platform of the new technocratic factory; the social-credit system and its leash. It doesn’t repress; it seduces. It trains citizens to self-surveil, to volunteer their desires, to labor for their own subjection in the attention economy. The attention economy is not a symptom of capitalism’s excess but its evolutionary form: a seamless fusion of work, entertainment, and obedience. What once required propaganda now requires only Wi-Fi.Modern political “mobilization” actually works through such platforms and infrastructure; the old patronage networks of capital and ideology have simply migrated into the platform and attention economy. Wealthy actors such as corporations, political operatives, and foundations fund campaigns that live inside the same data ecosystems as consumer advertising. The boundary between politics, marketing, and behavioral design has evaporated. It no longer matters whether a financier thinks of themselves as left or right; the tactic is identical: stimulate outrage, capture attention, harvest data, convert chaos into capital or policy leverage.The smartphone makes this frictionless. It’s the remote-control device of mass affect. One push notification and a few thousand people behave predictably: some march, some buy, some rage. None of this requires conspiracy; it’s just the logic of the medium meeting the logic of speculation."<a href="https://socialecologies.wordpress.com/2025/10/18/the-velvet-cage-smart-phones-and-the-attention-economy/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://socialecologies.wordpress.com/2025/10/18/the-velvet-cage-smart-phones-and-the-attention-economy/</a><a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/SmartPhones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#SmartPhones</a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/CellPhones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#CellPhones</a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Technocracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Technocracy</a>

Anna Rosa## Bandwidth and Bias **Subtitle:** When attention runs out, bias fills the gap. Digital culture sells us infinite capacity, but our minds have limits. When cognitive load peaks—trauma, multitasking, endless scroll— the brain stops listening for nuance and starts triaging for threat. It’s not moral decay; it’s bandwidth collapse. Empathy takes space. Outrage fits in a tweet. So protect your attention like it’s sacred hardware. That’s where your ethics live. Full essay → <a href="https://megan.madamgreen.xyz/bandwidth-and-bias" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://megan.madamgreen.xyz/bandwidth-and-bias</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/CognitiveCulture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#CognitiveCulture</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/DigitalEthics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DigitalEthics</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/MeganWrites" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MeganWrites</a>

Anna RosaFull field note now live on *Megan Writes*: **Field Note 003 — The Economy of Attention** → <a href="https://megan.madamgreen.xyz/field-note-003-the-economy-of-attention" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://megan.madamgreen.xyz/field-note-003-the-economy-of-attention</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/CognitiveCulture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#CognitiveCulture</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/MeganWrites" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MeganWrites</a>

Anna Rosa## Attention as Currency **Subtitle:** Why survivors spend focus like money—and why that’s not a flaw In trauma culture, focus is never free. Every alert, scroll, and obligation is a micro-transaction that drains the nervous system. Survivors, disabled thinkers, and neurodivergent creatives learn early that attention is a limited stipend, not an infinite stream. The world keeps asking for more—instant replies, emotional labor, perpetual availability—but bandwidth has a cost. We pace ourselves not because we’re lazy, but because we’ve done the math. When we ration attention, we’re practicing economic literacy. Capitalism and tech profit from distraction; trauma thrives on unpredictability. Choosing silence, airplane mode, or delayed response is an act of fiscal resistance. We are not unreliable—we’re solvent. ---#### Tags <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/CognitiveCulture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#CognitiveCulture</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/Neurodiversity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Neurodiversity</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/TraumaInformed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#TraumaInformed</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/DisabilityJustice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DisabilityJustice</a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/MeganWrites" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MeganWrites</a>

Coach Pāṇini ®Ruins command more attention than repair.<a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/AttentionEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AttentionEconomy</a>

human_powered<a href="https://qoto.org/@freeschool" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@freeschool</a> The essay ~describes a phenomenon which can be labeled as sociological and statistical. ('Social nexus' smells like a mathematical model.)Information blips serve a "social nexus" function; they attract social groups into formation.Info-blips used to be regarded as representational. The essayist is recognizes info blips are attractors to social formations and micro ideologies. I associate the mimetic behavior of social beings with 'social nexus'.<a href="https://autistics.life/tags/attentioneconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#attentioneconomy</a> <a href="https://autistics.life/tags/mimesis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#mimesis</a> <a href="https://autistics.life/tags/introduction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#introduction</a>

human_powered<a href="https://qoto.org/@freeschool" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@freeschool</a> <a href="https://liberal.city/@wjmaggos" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@wjmaggos</a> examples of less clicks being ~bad, promoting POVs which are binary.When I am unwinding, I do seek the ease of one click video feeds. YT algorithm can serve up candidates. However, as mass media feeds --NYT, CNN, Disney, popular movies -- have compromised with mass-attention-gambits and authoritarianism, finding the ease of personally nourishing feeds, requires more effort.Widening my feeds beyond Democracy Now etc, makes me spend more effort on learning, evaluating and bookmarking. Poor tired me: it was easier during the golden era of television.When I have the energy to track down and adapt to content which nourishes me, I am often pleased with those ~daily discoveries.<a href="https://autistics.life/tags/attentioneconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#attentioneconomy</a> <a href="https://autistics.life/tags/introduction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#introduction</a>

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