In 1971, the economist Herbert Simon made a remarkably observation: "A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." Half a century later, his words read less like a prediction than a description of daily life. With billions of posts, videos and notifications competing for our gaze, attention has become one of the most valuable on the planet.
Most of the apps on our phones are free to download, yet the companies behind them are among the wealthiest in history. The apparent paradox once we recognise that, in many cases, users are not the customers but the product. Revenue comes from advertisers, who pay for access to our time and data. The longer we scroll, the more profitable we become.
Consequently, digital platforms are meticulously to be difficult to put down. Infinite feeds remove natural ; variable rewards, such as the unpredictable arrival of likes, the same psychological mechanisms that make compelling. Former employees of major tech firms have spoken about designing features to maximise "" rather than wellbeing.
Critics argue that the effect is a of attention that undermines our capacity for deep, sustained thought. Others caution against , noting that similar fears accompanied the arrival of novels, radio and television. What is beyond dispute is that attention, once spent, cannot be recovered. Reclaiming it may require strategies: switching off non-essential notifications, scheduling periods of focused work, or simply leaving the phone in another room.