Yves Citton 
The Ecology of Attention 

Information overload, the shallows, weapons of mass distraction, the googlization of minds: countless commentators condemn the flood of images and information that dooms us to a pathological attention deficit.

In this new book, cultural theorist Yves Citton goes against the tide of these standard laments to offer a new perspective on the problem of attention in the digital age. Phrases like paying attention and investing one s attention attest to our mistaken belief that attention can be conceptualized in narrow economic terms. We are constantly drawn towards attempts to quantify and commodify attention, even down to counting the number of ‘likes’ a picture receives on Facebook or a video on You Tube. By contrast, Citton argues that we should conceptualize attention as a kind of ecology and examine how the many different environments to which we are exposed from advertising to literature, search engines to performance art condition our attention in different ways.

In a world where the demands on our attention are ever-increasing, this timely and original book will be of great interest to students and scholars in media and communications and in literary and cultural studies, and to anyone concerned about the long-term consequences of the profusion of images as well as digital content in the age of the internet.

Table of Content

Acknowledgements vi

Foreword ix

Introduction: From Attention Economy to Attention Ecology 1

Part I Collective Attention 25

1 Media Enthralments and Attention Regimes 27

2 Attentional Capitalism 44

3 The Digitalization of Attention 63

Part II Joint Attention 81

4 Presential Attention 83

5 The Micro-Politics of Attention 106

Part III Individuating Attention 123

6 Attention in Laboratories 125

7 Reflexive Attention 139

Conclusion: Towards an Attention Echology 171

Notes 200

Name Index 219

Subject Index 222

About the author

Yves Citton is Professor of French literature at the University of Grenoble.