Attention cannot function as currency without homogenizing measurement

Evidence

The whole analogy between attention and capital, between visibility and profitability, between the media and banks is in fact based on a discrete and apparently insignificant operation which is nonetheless essential to the entire edifice. None of this would stay standing without a series of HOMOGENISING MEASURING OPERATIONS: ‘attention only becomes a currency when it is measured in homogenous units and made to circulate via anonymous exchange acts.’ — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 163

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names and defines the presupposition underlying the entire attention-capital analogy.
• XREF: connects to: Laboratory attention studies are structurally blind to relational value — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 395; Attention’s present-bound nature contradicts the notion of capital accumulation — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 157; Attention only becomes convertible capital through homogenizing measurement devices — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 165 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• The attention economy treats attention as uniform when its quality is secretly variable #corroborates (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 345
• Attention functions as a currency that compounds like interest. #qualifies (0.80) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 10
• Measuring attention as data enables treating it as a monetizable resource #expands (0.75)
• Attention is a vector, not a scalar, because it aims beyond itself #expands (0.72) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 238
• Likes measure engagement, not goodwill, in the attention economy #qualifies (0.70) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 375