Attention is socially and materially mediated, not just a scarce mental resource

Evidence

Our second objective, then, is to identify avenues of empirical study and theoretical deliberation for a distinctly anthropological account of human attention—one that understands attention as an irreducibly socially and materially mediated phenomenon, not simply as a scarce resource that is located in and limited by individual mind-brains. We argue more specifically that attention can be theorized as a technology that organizes how humans perceive the world. — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 26

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to platform/capture frameworks like Wu’s ‘Attention Merchants’ and the wider critique of attention-economy neuroscience that treats attention as a purely brain-bound resource. — connects to: Attention is a superimposition of entangled mechanisms rather than a single faculty — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 360; Attention slowly forms through care and constitutes the social bond — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 489; So-called attention deficit is misdirected attention, not absence of attention — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 513 (+19 more)

Related

• Attention is a socially produced and politically governed resource, not merely a scarce one. (similarity 0.90)
• Attention is an activity that forms persons, not a resource that platforms act upon (similarity 0.89)
• Attention is a shared common resource, not private property. (similarity 0.89)
• Attention is the scarce resource that powers the information economy. (similarity 0.88)
• Attention is an interactive relation to one’s life-sustaining environment, not a resource (similarity 0.88)
• Attention is a superimposition of entangled mechanisms rather than a single faculty (similarity 0.88)
• Attention also varies in quality and mode, not just quantity (similarity 0.87)
• Anthropology has studied attention mostly implicitly, not as an explicit topic (similarity 0.87)
• Attention has emerged as a site of political, economic, and moral struggle (similarity 0.86)
• Paying attention differs from spending time or being aware. (similarity 0.86)
• Attention is becoming the hegemonic resource restructuring material production (similarity 0.86)
• Attention is the fundamental medium of all human connection (similarity 0.86)
• Attention has long been treated as valuable and manipulable, not only digitally. (similarity 0.86)
• Attention functions as a political economy embedded in specific temporal contexts (similarity 0.85)
• Attention scarcity is a capitalist construction, not a universal given (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Attention moves through shared systems just as bodies share material systems. #expands (0.92) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 479
• Attention is diverse cognitive engagement, not narrow focus #expands (0.85) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 496
• Attention is a scarce resource drained by information overload #contradicts (0.85) — Thomas Davenport & John Beck, The Attention Economy, 17
• Attentional scaffolds controllable by individuals constitute techniques of attention. #expands (0.82) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 45
• Attention can be deliberately wielded, not just reclaimed #expands (0.80)
• Shared attention builds a collective rather than merely private reality #expands (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 121