Video games monopolize attention automatically without requiring intentional focus

Evidence

Video games also consumed something else, human attention, in a way that was both old and new at the same time. As in any real game—be it tennis, pinball, or blackjack—the fast-flowing stimuli constantly engage the visual cortex, which reacts automatically to movement. No intentional focus is required, which explains why children and adults with Attention Deficit Disorder find the action of video games as engrossing as anyone else. Unlike games in reality, however, video games are not constrained by the laws of physics, making possible a more incremental calibration of the challenges involved, duration, and related factors in the attempt to keep players coming back. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 682

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why games capture attention regardless of ADD status — the visual cortex reacts automatically to movement.
• XREF: connects to: The computer screen commands even more focused attention than television — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 665; Smartphone screens monopolize attention formation toward a single engineered kind — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the…, 201; Attention-maximizing technologies can reduce rather than increase user control over attention — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 635 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Smartphone screens monopolize attention formation toward a single engineered kind #corroborates (0.88) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 201
• Attention-maximizing technologies can reduce rather than increase user control over attention #corroborates (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 635
• Automatic attention is sedimented past attention and belongs in any attention ecology #expands (0.82) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 373
• Games achieve their pull by inducing Csikszentmihalyi’s flow state #complicates (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 684
• Voluntary attention modulates how audiovisual contexts affect subsequent fusion #contradicts (0.72) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5137
• Endless attention harvesting inevitably triggers adaptive backlash and loss of enchantment #qualifies (0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 71