I thought that I’ve already read this for a university class a long, long time ago, but apparently not! The Attention Merchants charts the rise of modern attention-grabbers, starting with the first newspapers and posters.

While you could probably piece together the story by reading books about the main players (newspapers, Google, Oprah, etc), The Attention Merchants manages to tie everything together through an emphasis on how each development changed the way the human attention was harvested and sold. First, there were the newspapers, who made their money selling advertisements rather than the news (so the readers were already the product, not the customer even in those days), then we had the radio, where people realised that in that particular period of time, they could hold the attention of the entire nation of America (or nearly the whole nation) and feed them what they wanted to say. From there, we had television, games, the rise of influencer celebrities, and now the Internet with its micro-celebrities.

I made a lot of bookmarks throughout the book, but the one thing that stood out was that many of the things that we complain about now are not new. The customer as the product? That was there from the start. Clickbait headlines? Also not a new thing. People using anti-consumerism to sell things? Well, the Charlie Brown Christmas special is a good example about how that’s been the case for a while.

Another thing that struck me was that although a lot of this takes place in the recent past, the technologies mentioned feel dated. AOL? I barely recall the days of dial-up, but if I think about it, I was using some form of it when I was in primary school during the early 2000s. MTV? Oh yeah, I used to watch that too! Just looking at the start dates for shows like Simpsons and Friends made me realise how old the shows were!

Of course, the road to the domination of our attention has not always been smooth sailing. There have been several blowbacks but so far, the attention merchants have always managed to evolve and win. I suppose it’s really up to us to decide how we want to break free (or not). After all, books like this one, Indistractible, and Trust Me, I’m Lying have already shown us how our attention is being harvested and ways we can break free. The next step, is up to us.

You May Also Enjoy

Indistractible by Nir Eyal – Would you like to be less distracted? Nir Eyal has written a practical guide that does not involve cutting off all technology (review)

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport – Would you like to be less reliant on technology? What would digital minimalism look like? In this inspiring and practical book, Newport introduces to concept of Digital Minimalism and gives you the steps you need to achieve it (review).

How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price – If your phone is the issue, Catherine Price has a 30-day plan to help you break up with it. Don’t worry, it’s not a permanent break, it’s more of a temporary fast (review).

Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday – An expose of the darker side of media, showing how they manipulate the reader/viewer (review on Goodreads)