The millennium marked a visible migration of mass attention from television to the internet

Evidence

The networks would claim audiences of more than 800 million worldwide, but who could blame one for thinking it television’s last hurrah? For in that epochal year, there was no denying that mass attention seemed to have migrated irresistibly to a new medium that had lately evolved into a form we would now recognize and yet was plainly still only in the infancy of its possibilities. The BBC had declared 1999 “the year of the Net,” and CNN.com invited users to “uncork the bubbly, boot up the computer, and usher in the new era in an appropriately futuristic way.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 857

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader arc of the book — every new medium was declared the death of the previous one, echoing earlier chapters on radio vs. newspapers. — connects to: The internet became near-universal and normatively sacred within two decades of the web’s invention. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1702; Online services had to lure users away from television to win attention. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 696; The rise of personalized web consumption ended broadcasters’ power to compel attention — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 921 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The rise of personalized web consumption ended broadcasters’ power to compel attention #expands (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 921
• Early internet popularity was constrained by dial-up speed and uncertain commerce through 2000 #qualifies (0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 164
• Viral internet media outdrew the most watched events in human history #exemplifies (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1067