What is Your Attention Worth?

Maybe it's worth everything

Hi, Birdsong Dancers!

How much is inattention costing you?

gave all our data,
sold off our attention spans
for dopamine hits

The Algorithmic Prayer

Holy Algorithm in Quanta,
The machines giveth and taketh.
Glory be to the machines!
Optimize our choices.
Show us what to buy,
who we should friend,
and believe.
Never
let
us
wonder,
make mistakes,
or suffer doubts.
Lead us to money
without excess toil.
Destroy our friends with envy.
Bring us love without mystery.
A.I. is the Ultimate. Amen

Attention Deficit

It still blows me away that such a thing as the attention economy exists. Corporations have invested trillions of dollars to find ways to convert our attention into ad revenue. The most shocking part of the whole affair isn’t the unconscionable lengths to which companies will go to boost ad revenue by monetizing rage or the amount of duplicity corporate leaders and politicians engage in to protect profits, the most shocking thing is how cheaply we all decided to sell our attention.

What is attention?

Our attention is the signal we send to our entire body about what is important, what is worth noticing. When we focus our attention on something, we start to see it in a different way, and we perceive less of anything outside of our area of focus. Our brains filter it out.

I’m not a Luddite. I love the internet. I love how computers make my poetry comic carer a possibility. I have spent plenty of time on social media. But, several years ago, I noticed the damage it was doing to me, and I didn’t want that for my children.

I rediscovered poetry around this same time. I noticed that writing haiku about what I was seeing or what I was imagining felt much better than scrolling social media. Most importantly, I began to remember what it’s like to pay attention. Trees I had walked by for years without a second thought occasionally became interesting. I noticed weirdly shaped branches and the way the ivy attacks trees slowly, sending up one tendril as a scout before the rest of the vines choked the trunk.

I began to notice the people in my life in different ways. My relationships became richer.

My lack of attention on real life had cost me so much peace and contentment. I had sold my attention for short bursts of dopamine. I literally gave my attention away in exchange for funny memes.

I am not a Zen master. I still struggle with focus and attention. But just being conscious that there is a struggle has made life more colorful. None of this is new. But chances are you wish you could have a better attention span, you want to feel more connected to the natural world and the people you allow in your life.

The easiest way to break out of the attention economy is to find something else to do with your hands and mind besides scrolling through social media. I suggest reading and writing poetry—especially haiku. Haiku is the poetry of noticing.

Try it, you might just find you like being in control of your attention again.

Artist Note

I wrote the Algorithmic Prayer way back in 2018 because I felt we as a society were in the process of making new gods for ourselves. AI and algorithms were being treated like all-knowing spiritual guides to living the best life. This has only become further entrenched since then.

If you want something else to scroll instead of social media, I have a FREE 20-page full-color PDF comic version of this poem on my Weirdo Poetry shop. Paid subscribers to this newsletter will be getting a digital haiku comics zine in the coming weeks.

Be the poetry you want to see in the world!

Cheers,

Jason
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