Economic metaphors about attention conceal more than they reveal by hiding key differences

Evidence

Our linguistic habits no doubt push us in this direction: we ‘pay’ attention to this or that; these objects generally ‘yield’ information in ‘exchange’ for this ‘payment’; this kind of transaction certainly ‘produces’ a kind of intellectual ‘profit’. To keep to this dominant economic paradigm – directed towards the maximization of profits thanks to the reduction of costs in a context of market competition – is to suggest that everything can be understood in terms of a ‘better return’, a ‘more rational organization’ or a ‘more efficient management’ of our attentional resources, whether that be for advertising, managerial, production or activist purposes. These kinds of metaphor, however, are as dangerous for the differences they conceal as they are useful for the parallels they reveal. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 78

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes attention-economy vocabulary (pay/yield/exchange/profit) from the ecological reframing the book will argue for.
• XREF: Echoes the reader’s prior finding that information overload persists because it serves commercial interests — same critique of economizing what escapes accounting. — connects to: Attention works as a needle weaving global links at the price of inequality — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 560; The economic paradigm distorts our understanding of how attention actually functions — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 75; Attention inequality forms a distinct axis of class alongside money — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 183

Broader Connections

• The economic paradigm distorts our understanding of how attention actually functions #corroborates (0.90) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 75