Part III: Attention Is Scarce

When I say attention is scarce, I mean that there is not enough attention available today to meet our needs. That’s what I set out to show in this part of the book. First, I will define attention; then I’ll present several examples of needs that either are already no longer met due to a lack of attention—such as the need for meaning—or are at risk of not being met in the near future. After that, I will consider how much human attention is currently caught up in Industrial Age activities and how an increasing amount of attention is being trapped through our current uses of digital technology, such as advertising-based social networks. I will also discuss why market-based capitalism cannot be used to allocate attention.