No attention capture strategy outlasts the disenchantment effect indefinitely

Evidence

The urge for what’s next seems to be insatiable, and for that reason the Kardashians and the world of television in all likelihood have cause to worry. It is simply not conceivable that the future of commercial television, whatever it may turn out to be, can indefinitely sustain attention for any particular format, particularly one with as much market share and overdevelopment as reality TV. No matter how desirable the financial calculus, no attention capture strategy has been able to stay ahead of the disenchantment effect indefinitely. Eventually, even the goose that lays the golden egg gets old and dies. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 852

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘disenchantment effect’ echoes the pattern from earlier chapters — each new attention medium (radio, cinema, TV) eventually sated its audience — and connects to the later platform cycle of novelty-then-fatigue. — connects to: Endless attention harvesting inevitably triggers adaptive backlash and loss of enchantment — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 71; Self-commodification in the attention economy creates an escalating spiral of exposure and attack — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 207

Broader Connections

• Endless attention harvesting inevitably triggers adaptive backlash and loss of enchantment #corroborates (0.90) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 71
• Self-commodification in the attention economy creates an escalating spiral of exposure and attack #complicates (0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 207