REDEF ORIGINAL: The Attention Economy Crisis: The Future of Content, Commerce and Culture

The last hundreds of billions of dollars in value creation was innovation that gave people convenience. Businesses, leveraging new technology and business models, gave people their time and attention back. The next wave of innovation will help people spend that time and attention better

The metrics used to trade advertising and to measure delivery of content (aka stories) are becoming less and less correlated to what people are actually paying attention to. This is because vanity metrics that are poorly defined – like “views” or “impressions” – are propped up in order to keep advertising prices low.

Never in human history have two of the ten largest companies on planet earth (Facebook and Google) been advertising businesses. Many of the other largest companies in the world, including Amazon, are increasing their advertising offerings. And why not: the world’s most valuable resource is harder to find than ever before, so of course more people w... See more

Advertising, in theory, is the business of buying and selling human attention. And though the ad business makes up only a small portion of the overall Attention Economy, it plays a massive role in shaping almost every other business.