Attention works as a needle weaving global links at the price of inequality

Evidence

From the assembly line to the recycling conveyer belt, by way of the scrolling letters passing under the saccades of our eyes, our attention is like the needle that constantly weaves this ground of concrete links that hold us together, at the price of the greatest global inequalities. Attention ecology remains at the level of vague generalities so long as it does not involve itself with the singularity of our multiple interlinked ecosystems. At every level, its challenge is to help us identify what we are able to change in our different environments, so that we can pay better attention to what deserves it. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 560

Categorization

• XREF: The weaving/needle metaphor of attention pairs naturally with the reader’s ‘Grafting & Growth’ piece on trees as connective infrastructure. — connects to: Attentional experiences rest on an exploited global material labor chain — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 559; Attention inequality forms a distinct axis of class alongside money — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 183; Attention functions as currency in prestige-differentiated social groups — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 13 (+15 more)
• SHARE: The image of attention as a needle weaving the concrete relational fabric between assembly line and saccade is worth sending to anyone working on materialist media theory.

Broader Connections

• Attention inequality forms a distinct axis of class alongside money #expands (0.90) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 183
• Attention operates as a form of capital that accrues interest and concentrates inequality. #expands (0.90) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 16
• Contemplation access forms gated communities of attention divided by inequality #exemplifies (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 665
• Economic metaphors about attention conceal more than they reveal by hiding key differences #complicates (0.85) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 78
• Attention is more valuable when it diverges from others than when it aligns #complicates (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 526
• Attention is alignment, the same faculty on individual and collective levels #contradicts (0.80)
• The attention economy treats attention as uniform when its quality is secretly variable #complicates (0.78) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 345
• Mass-media profits derive from non-reciprocal attention exchange #expands (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 251
• Attention scarcity can be turned into an asset through redistributed attention #complicates (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 337
• Attention functions as currency in prestige-differentiated social groups #qualifies (0.72) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 13
• Attention functions as a political economy embedded in specific temporal contexts #expands (0.72) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 25