Starving for Attention
The Attention Economy and Starvation in Yemen
Perhaps, one of the best ways to fight governments, corporations, and religious institutions is to starve them of attention.
If there is anything that I have learned as a parent, it is that you do not change behaviour by calling attention to the child’s worst behaviour. You change behaviour by replacing bad habits with good habits and more positive, enjoyable experiences.
Violence has never been an effective way to resist evil. We overcome evil with good.
How have we, the affluent digital class, caused the worst humanitarian crisis of our time? By paying more attention to the outrageous behaviour of celebrities and authoritarian demagogues while ignoring the plight of the citizens of Yemen. The poorest country in the Middle East is starving to death while we amuse ourselves to death.
The Attention Economy
We are using design to support the destruction of our democracies by digital dictatorships such as Facebook.
To resist, we must starve the dictators’ appetite for attention.
To do this, way pay attention to what is most important.
We must design a new model to replace the existing model, to render it obsolete.
