Attention is an interactive relation to one’s life-sustaining environment, not a resource

Evidence

In the same way, we could say that attention is an interaction. It represents the essential mediator charged with assuring my relationship with the environment that nourishes my survival: a being can only persist in existence to the extent that it manages to ‘pay attention’ to that on which it depends for the reproduction of its life form. It must ‘attend to’ (beachten) that which enables it to live, it must be concerned for it in order to take care of it. Paying attention is a genuine activity – preceding any form of subsequent action: it implies weaving together observations and gestures while respecting the correct level of tension for maintaining tenable relations with our milieu. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 86

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ecological claim that attention sustains life form is tantalizing but calls for concrete empirical grounding - how does attention actually mediate survival?
• XREF: connects to: Attention ecology rejects a coercive de-alienation of distracted audiences. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 481; Attention is an activity that forms persons, not a resource that platforms act upon — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 68; Attention is a fundamental life resource, not a discretionary commodity. — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the…, 104 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Attention is an activity that forms persons, not a resource that platforms act upon #corroborates (0.92) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 68
• Attention is socially and materially mediated, not just a scarce mental resource #expands (0.88) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 26
• Attention is a fundamental life resource, not a discretionary commodity. #contradicts (0.85) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 104
• Attention is a vector, not a scalar, because it aims beyond itself #expands (0.78) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 238
• Attention is directional potential, not a static countable quantity. #corroborates (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 236
• Attention cannot be treated as a value-neutral economic resource because it shapes ends #complicates (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 80
• Paying attention differs from spending time or being aware. #expands (0.72) — Thomas Davenport & John Beck, The Attention Economy, 22