Attention is a finite resource whose unequal distribution produces symbolic misery

Evidence

Indeed, the problem should not be posed so much in terms of equality or un-respected reciprocity as in terms of disproportion and what Bernard Stiegler has called ‘symbolic misery’: ‘Wealthy people in the new economy are those whose attention earnings are larger by orders of magnitude than their spending. The poor are those who do not get enough attention to keep their self-esteem intact. This wealth of some and the poverty of all the others are interrelated: the amount of recognition available for distribution is not unlimited. The attention circulating in society is finite.’ — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 185

Categorization

• XREF: The finitude of attention and its systemic poverty parallels energy and land enclosure arguments — a Marxian theory of attention as a scarce common resource. — connects to: Herbert Simon defined attention as the scarce resource that information consumes. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 35; Human serial attention limits make attention the scarce resource — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 137; Attention is a scarce resource drained by information overload — Thomas Davenport & John Beck, The Attention Economy: Understanding…, 17 (+2 more)
• SEED: Angles for a piece on platform economics: ‘the attention circulating in society is finite’ as the reframing of extraction — what do we lose by no longer calling it a public good?

Broader Connections

• Attention is a scarce resource drained by information overload #corroborates (0.80) — Thomas Davenport & John Beck, The Attention Economy, 17
• Information abundance creates a scarcity of attention #corroborates (0.75) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 7