People can pay attention to something while being unaware they are attending to it

Evidence

If you have been able to recognize your name in the surrounding noise, this is because something, in you, was not only hearing but ‘listening’ to nearby discussions, with sufficient attention to notice that they were speaking about you (or someone with the same name). So, we can pay attention [prêter attention] to something without giving it our attention [sans y faire attention]… — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 361

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens the distinction between lending attention and consciously focusing it — a key conceptual tool for critique of covert platform capture.
• XREF: The cocktail party effect is the canonical experimental footing for the ‘we know more than we know’ claim the author uses to indict unperceived brand messaging. — connects to: An attentional experience can reveal whole swaths of familiar environment previously unheard — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 369; A secretive collective undertakes ritualized attentional performances — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 437

Broader Connections

• An attentional experience can reveal whole swaths of familiar environment previously unheard #expands (0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 369