Got a minute? How technology affects the economy of attention

Abstract

It is impossible to get information in or out of our head without paying attention. Yet attention, as Herbert Simon has noted, is a limited resource. As a result, exchanging attention for information not only defines communication, it is also provides the sufficient conditions for an economy of attention based on principles rather different than those taught in traditional economics courses. Some of these principles allow us better to understand the recursive evolution of information, communication and attention technologies, the first two assisting us to produce and distribute information, the last assisting us to consume it. Other principles allow us to speculate about the social and organizational consequences of this recursive evolution by distinguishing information that reduces demand for additional attention from information that increases it. My talk will outline some of the principles of attentional economics and sample some of their implications for Computer Supported Cooperative Work.