The War On Attention

in #hive2 years ago (edited)

the-circle.webp


The most important commodity of this century is not oil.

Yeah, I know, you just discovered that you still need fossil fuels, because your vanity-powered virtue signaling towards sustainable energy was triggered a bit too soon. Taking climate change advice from a Swedish teenager maybe wasn't the best idea after all? So no, although still important, oil is not the most important commodity.

But it's not crypto either.

I know, you're here, reading this, because you have a certain belief that crypto will offset any losses incurred by this accelerated economic downturn. To a certain extent, it will offset those losses, so it might be a safer bet than gold, for instance, but it's still not the most important commodity of all.

You want to know what it is?

You really, really want to?

Well, you're just giving it away right now, in this very second.

It's attention.

Human attention is at the root of everything that you call "reality". Literally, everything that happens to you, around you, for you, emerges from attention.

There is a war going on right now around this commodity, a war fought on many levels, with huge amounts of money poured into it, and millions of troops. You're part of it. Your attention is important for those people and you're already giving it away indiscriminately.

This war is fought with deceit and manipulation. Guns may be part of it, but they're not the most important front. The biggest advance line is your monitor. The tiny, translucent square that you look at first thing in the morning. That's where they fight, and that's where you loose.

Every time you look at that thing, a cascade of events is triggered: you're identified, you're profiled and then dozens of machines around the world are starting to churn away data from your input. What you read, for how long, what you click on, when and so on. Micro-seconds of input are sliced into meaningful intelligence and fed into the next thing that you're looking at. A dynamic, custom reality is created, and unfolds relentlessly just for you.

The goal is to keep you there. Glued. Attached. And, above all, predictable.

They win when they are able to predict your next move better than you can. At that point, you are controlled, conquered, part of their army.

And you start fighting for them, without even realizing you're fighting for someone.

Choose wisely where you put your attention, for whoever has unmitigated, instant access to it, is your master.

Sort:  

Great post. If it wasn't for these tiny screens we wouldn't have a pandemic nor a war.

Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!

Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!

Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more

Congratulations @the-envoy! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

You received more than 1250 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 1500 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:

Hive Power Up Month - Feedback from February day 15
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!