Mass distraction is not uniformly harmful but has differential collective effects

Evidence

Why deny that a sporting exploit could, through an effect of formal causality, inspire among its spectators the belief that it is possible to surpass oneself? How can you close your eyes to the fact that a video game develops certain skills even as it distracts us from current problems? We will see in the third part of this book that all these distractions are far from equal but, in response to abstract and indiscriminate condemnations of the mass media, cultural industries or the society of the spectacle, it is important to recognize the complexity of the dynamics that are concretely at work in our collective attention. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 111

Categorization

• XREF: Directly complicates the Frankfurt School’s blanket condemnation of the culture industry — precisely the bridge this reader seeks. — connects to: Attention is conditioned and constitutive of collective flows simultaneously, without contradiction — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 241

Broader Connections

• Attention is conditioned and constitutive of collective flows simultaneously, without contradiction #expands (0.85) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 241