Social Media and Politics of Attention
Consider the things that disrupt your attention, that break you out of routine. Is social media among them?
I’ve been writing about social media distraction for some time, but today, consider a different angle. Consider how attention-grabbing social media networks are influenced by political power, how those political powers influence the algorithms, and how those algorithms influence you. What do I mean? In an article published today on Bloomberg, Sarah Frier shows how Facebook’s attempts to appease political powers lead to the proliferation of manipulative media. She writes,
Zuckerberg isn’t easily influenced by politics. But what he does care about—more than anything else perhaps—is Facebook’s ubiquity and its potential for growth. The result, critics say, has been an alliance of convenience between the world’s largest social network and the White House, in which Facebook looks the other way while Trump spreads misinformation about voting that could delegitimize the winner or even swing the election.
This is your must-read article of the day. And after you’ve digested it, ask yourself: In a world in which my attention is the ultimate commodity, who stands to benefit the most from manipulating that commodity?
I want to hear from you.
How are you feeling about social media these days? Do you feel your attention being manipulated (particularly politically), or is it all high-school reunions and kitten memes in your feeds? Feel free to drop me an email and let me know.
Screen Time Update.
This week, I average less than 2 hours per day on my phone, an accomplishment seeing as it’s one of my most used work devices. I’ll keep you updated.
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