The attention economy predates digital technology by 150 years

Evidence

So, an initial temporal reframing with respect to the traditional association of the attention economy and the development of digital technologies is necessary. On the one hand, we will enrich our understanding of these phenomena over the very long term if they are re-situated within the aesthetic analyses and theorizations that have accompanied reflections on rhetoric and stylistics. On the other hand, the attention economy is inseparable from the evolutions produced and experienced by capitalism over the last one hundred and fifty years, from the beginning of the industrial modernization that continues to conquer the planet (today in China, Brazil and India) to the Taylorization of intellectual tasks affecting the reorganization of ‘cognitive capitalism’. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 62

Categorization

• XREF: Extends classical-Marxist labor analysis into cognitive capitalism, echoing the book’s Frankfurt bridge. — connects to: Attention scarcity plagued writers and scholars centuries before digital media — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 53; The attention industry did not exist a century ago — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 14; Mass-scale attention harvesting began with advertising in the 1890s-1920s — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 24 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• The attention industry did not exist a century ago #contradicts (0.95) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 14
• Mass-scale attention harvesting began with advertising in the 1890s-1920s #corroborates (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 24