“Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention”

Howard Rheingold

If you’ve come across this Blog, chances are you’ve got a larger attention span than the average person. Taking the time to read the words coming up on your screen is quite the feat in the world of TikTok, scrolling and instant-gratification.

I’m not anti-social media, if anything the new wave of media consumption needs its own category. Something more fitting is Seamless Media. The transition of information from scroll to scroll, mindlessly for hours, is far from social.

Look, and my friends can vouch for it, I found it hilarious sending them random TikTok’s (although Instagram reels is superior imo). However, with my PhD in Maturity I deleted TikTok 3 years ago and the app has gone from strength to strength as well as the debate about it’s impact on us as a species.

A thought experiment is to put yourself in the shoes of the industries that provide the content stream we all know and love and why they would think about making such popular apps free. No I won’t be going down the CCP Surveillance conspiracy theory rabbit hole but if you’re familiar with the Netflix show “The Social Dilemma’ you’ll catch my drift.

Imagine you can guarantee millions of views, advertising reach and brand exposure for a company’s product. All encapsulated in a psychologically addicting and dopamine system hijacking package. That’d be worth some money surely?

Of course we don’t pay for TikTok, Youtube or Instagram because we are the product being sold. From simple metrics such as to what we click on, view and like to more in depth analytics such as how long it takes you to swipe, where we are geographically and our activity on other apps.

Your information is a byproduct of the main currency of seamless media – your attention. And with humans now having a shorter attention span than a goldfish, those seconds are an extremely sought after resource.

Mix in your dopamine mechanism being meticulously manipulated and you have a powerful marketing tool. It won’t be the last time something in this vein of thinking gets posted by me again. Cheers for paying attention, safe.