Modern Life is not about things!

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... it's about attention!

Someday our media will be integrated and the artificial walls will come down. TV needs to be reworked. I keep waiting for Apple or Google to do it. But who knows maybe it will start with Samsung.

... all this came to mind because i was thinking of changing my "home page" from memeorandum.com to mashable.com ...

Bear in mind that i am NOT talking about the evils of shouting for attention ... even though that is certainly there. I'm talking about the importance of paying attention ... and what people pay attention to ... how that changes in the individual ... and how it changes in our culture.

Note how the new economy is really not about things anymore. It is not about amassing a wealth of things ... not about a wealth of shiny objects and grand possessions. No, now it is about who pays attention to you ... and to what you pay attention. People and processes compete for our attention ... and we compete for theirs. We no longer really compete for things ... there are too many of them ... they are too easy to obtain ... but attention ... good focused attention ... that is rare ... scarce ... and hard to get. It is something to be coveted indeed.

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Seth says

facebook dialogue here

Seth says

seth 2013-04-04 07:56:27 16454

Well a lot of what you are saying i agree with. Watching TV certainly is less active than reading a book, in that with reading you actively make up the imagery yourself, while the TV strongly suggests that imagery and even serves you an emotional content in the sound track.

But the extent of that really does depend on how you watch TV or read a book. Just like you have found yourself driving a car leaving yourself behind, so have i found myself reading along parsing words from a book an thinking about something entirely different ... i had to go back and reread to pick up the story ... not so with driving, there you don't have to go back and re-drive the path,

.

I'm just pointing out that it is the same with TV ... sometimes you are engrossed ... sometimes you are not ... sometimes you are making up scenarios about how the show was written or produced or directed or stories about the actors ... other times you might be thinking about how the content is reflecting the culture from which it comes. We are all so very different, and at different times are even different from ourselves ... some more so than others,

.

My life is what i make it ... even myself ... that is what i make it too. I can be present to my immediate sensations ... and/or what i am feeling at the moment ... and/or what i feel about myself or imagine myself to be; ... and/or i can be present to what is happening in my culture and how that is affecting my behavior and how my behavior is affecting my environment and my friends and family. Watching TV, does not change that ... in a way it extends it, giving me a wider awareness ...
lots more to be present to

.

That said, to answer your question directly, when i watch TV, i am most usually in bed with Denise. She watches quite differently than I do ... and frequently needs me to tell her what the screen is showing. She also is much more caught up with fashion, consumerism and money ... i guess you would call that "materialism". So frequently my mind is not at all engrossed in the content from the TV. When we do happen into a good drama, which is not very often, of course i will follow it ... just like it was a good movie or live stage play or a novel. Where am I when that happens? Just the very same place I am with all the other media ... listening to somebody tell me a story.

Seth says

M 2013-04-06 10:45:15 16430

For most people in the current generation life is about things. Things can get you attention.

yes that is true.

i think that the commercial things that we are swimming in recede to the background of our awareness ... even with all the advertising. the commercial things ... although they are almost everything that we see around us .... are, they themselves, not what modern life is about. at least for most people ... there are exceptions of course. what bubbles up, me thinks for most people in the current generation, is their social life ... and that is all about who (and what) pays attention to you and who (and what) you pay attention to. alternatively some people pay attention to their private processes ... those are definitely not things. others times people pay attention to what is *happening* in their society ... politics, religion, sports ... or what is happening in their media.

i watch my slide show ... the pictures of what grabbed my attention ... most of them are not things ... some of them are. some of those pictures i share with you or social media. watch what goes by in your newsfeeds ... excluding companies who are advertising the things they sell ... how many of the rest are about things? not that very many i think.

incidentally, is advertising really "about" the things advertised? ... or it is more just about getting your attention?

Seth says

Now that i think about it, this is not even my idea, i absorbed it from my culture ... see Google search.

Seth says

M 2013-04-10 13:25:11 16430

The end product is commerce otherwise advertisers would not part with money to do it. Sometimes the advertizement is merely for brand name presence & recognition. Attention is more important to TV personalities, actors, & politicians. But, it is the payoff in votes, eyeballs for shows etc that is the end product.

Well my point is that attention is the new currency ... it is not gold or commodities ... and it is not even money. Attention has become and will become more and more the life blood of our culture.

You keep thinking about whatever else ... or just about words ... and not grocking what i am saying. Look, what i am saying may or may not be a true perspective ... but i have no way to tell based upon your discussion because you do not even focus on the salient aspects of the subject.

Seth says

M 2013-04-10 11:11:59 16430

seth 2013-04-10 10:07:32 16430

M 2013-04-10 08:37:18 16430

seth 2013-04-10 07:58:26 16430

M 2013-04-09 12:18:37 16430

Advertizing serves the purposes of commerce; including the buying/selling of politicians!

yeah so what?

Apparently your last sentence in the above comment was just for yourself!

My question "yeah so what?" was a question to you asking what the fact that "Advertizing serves the purposes of commerce; including the buying/selling of politicians!" has to do with this specific context above. I really do want to know if there is some connection between those true sentences and what i am talking about here ... because, truthfully, i am baffled about what you think the connection is.

For those who think logic is a game playing dumb seems consistent.

Seth in the current above comment: ... incidentally, is advertising really "about" the things advertised? ... or it is more just about getting your attention?

... I answered it by saying it is commerce not attention.

Ok, here is a more detailed description: Commerce requires a connection between producers and customers. Advertising is how producers gain the *attention* of customer ... advertising is about attention. That is really just common knowledge and can not (should not) be disputed. Thing is, more and more, advertising has become more about gaining somebody's attention and any message about some thing produced is thrown in as a rider, almost as an after thought. That is the complete thought that justifies me saying: "Modern life is not about things ... it's about attention!"

Can you add to that thought or dispute it?

Mark de LA says

Maybe somebody should invent Acoins (similar to Bitcoins) & see how the market does with them.

Modern Life is not about things!

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