Welcome reader! For who this read is important? Everyone. You want to make money online? Important read. Want to get promoted on the job? Important read. Want to become better at marketing? Important read. Want to build something that will sell? Important read. You get the picture. The future economy is about attention and getting others to give you their time of day. What should you pay attention to? How should you position yourself? Let's dive deeper into what is happening and what you should do.
Where We Are Now And Where We Are Heading
World Full Of Distractions: Mindless scrolling and mindless consumption. Suppose we had to use only two words to describe what is happening. Results? The average individual has never had more problems than before. Constant comparison with the others, anxiety, and overall lack of sense of purpose. Nothing is unexpected when you have access to everything with one click. Most young people suffer from at least one of these symptoms - remember to do the opposite of the majority. When you put everything together, you realize it is the perfect funnel to fall into one of the lifestyle traps. Technology and innovations are trying to keep you in the loop for as long as possible. Why? The answer, as with most of the other stuff - money. The other side is collecting the data they can analyze - understanding the user behavior and how they could improve things (to spend more time on their platform). More time spent on the platform equals more ads displayed, which results in the company making more money. It's logical when you think about it. Everyone reading this should understand that everyone plays games to their benefit. The world operates on those principles and will continue to operate like that. What is the point of this? For you to understand that things will not get better.
Current State Of The Economy: Those who operate on the internet (in any way) or are aspiring business owners must understand one thing. The ones who are winning the game and making the most money are the ones who are getting the most attention. The situation is more complex, but it all comes down to that. Getting the big picture and understanding what is happening should not be a problem for anyone reading this. We all are operating in the attention economy. What is the attention economy? One that operates on the most precious resources out of all. Time. The information space has been oversaturated with the same information from different creators. This means that winning someone's time is the only way to win over others doing the same. The more attention someone has, the bigger the chances they will make more money. Why is the attention economy important? Because participating is the only way you can win new customers. Not just win them but also create the bond they need to trust you. Those who are playing the long game? They all think like that. Trust and social proof are unbeatable. One attracts new customers while the other one keeps them. The concept of the attention economy doesn’t make much sense until you combine it with other factors that play a role.
Attention Spans: If you know that attention spans have never been shorter… That only means one thing. If the resources are limited - attention… That only means one thing: you want to be in front of your audience as much as possible. It means that you have to show yourself again and again. This is how you keep your audience coming back for more. This is the perfect example of why most current YouTubers repeatedly make the same videos and ride that wave - just changing the thumbnail and looking for the next catchy headline. For some, that might be boring and repetitive. For others? Source of fun and relaxation. Most average individuals are in the second category. Why are we mentioning this? You must realize that you can only compete in the current ridiculous climate by repeating yourself. What about the attention spans? The average human attention span has never been worse. The average attention span is around 8 seconds, and we don’t see it improving as time passes. Quite the opposite, we see things getting worse as the younger generations cannot even bother to finish YouTube videos because they are "too slow" and "boring". The trend of classifying content as boring and slow will continue to grow. Imagine the future in ten to twenty years with that approach that is becoming normalized. Only a few will possess reading abilities to process information through long text.
Importance Of Protecting Yourself: You should do everything you can to protect yourself and not become a victim of the algorithm. Your time and focus should be used to build and set yourself up to be in a favorable position as soon as possible. We mentioned something similar in Escaping the Digital Rat Race and why it is important not to participate or stay away from it. Becoming a victim of the algorithm is not a hard thing. It is common, and many don’t realize how many hours per week they spend watching useless content that doesn’t bring any value.
A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. - Herbert A. Simon
Impact On Corporate Careers: Our readers in the corporate world already know what we are talking about. LinkedIn is one funny place. It's not just funny… It is ridiculous. Reading half of the posts there and scrolling through the front page often requires a good stomach. Why are we mentioning it? We know many cases where LinkedIn was used to get promotions and build social proof - another proof that we live in the attention economy. Those cringe posts? Boomers love them. Your CEO loves them. Your board members love them. Fake gratitude, fake love, and fake motivation gets you an attention. Attention builds your reputation. Reputation builds your promotions. If you create the content around what you are doing, you will be considered someone who is an example and knows the niche/industry - it doesn't matter that you just copied what you saw on YouTube three hours ago. That’s how the attention economy works. We won't get into specifics on whether or not you should build a LinkedIn profile. We can confirm that we know multiple cases that have done it and leveraged it to their benefit. Leaving it to you to decide if it is worth it or not.
What Does Attention Economy Mean For You: Being aware of the trends and what works is the first step in getting a competitive advantage. The only way you will win this game? By playing it. Creating content, being in front of your audience, and building a social reputation - all those factors matter. Another crucial realization is for you to understand that things won’t change in the future. Quite the opposite, things will turn more toward personal brands, and the market saturation will lead to further trust dependency. When you compare the trust levels of the corporations in the 1980s to what is happening now, you can see the effect of what has been happening. People trust big brands less than they used to - around 50% less than 50 years ago. Who do they trust? They trust those who can relate to - human nature. It is much easier for the individual to connect with his favorite fitness influencer than with a big brand that doesn’t care about him. Suppose this doesn’t make much sense to you, or you feel it is necessary to participate in it. You are neglecting the facts - there is a wake-up call sooner or later.
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