Three Slices (A Prelude to War; Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys; Interlude: Swallow)

Attention merchant: an industrial-scale harvester of human attention. A firm whose business model is the mass capture of attention for resale to advertisers. In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of advertising enticements, branding efforts, sponsored social media, commercials and other efforts to harvest our attention. Over the last century, few times or spaces have remained uncultivated by the 'attention merchants', contributing to the distracted, unfocused tenor of our times. Tim Wu argues that this is not simply the byproduct of recent inventions but the end result of more than a century's growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. From the pre-Madison Avenue birth of advertising to TV's golden age to our present age of radically individualized choices, the business model of 'attention merchants' has always been the same. He describes the revolts that have risen against these relentless attempts to influence our consumption, from the remote control to FDA regulations to Apple's ad-blocking OS. But he makes clear that attention merchants grow ever-new heads, and their means of harvesting our attention have given rise to the defining industries of our time, changing our nature - cognitive, social, and otherwise - in ways unimaginable even a generation ago. Title Copyright Introduction Here’s the Deal Part I Masters of Blazing Modernities Chapter 1 The First Attention Merchants Chapter 2 The Alchemist Chapter 3 For King and Country Chapter 4 Demand Engineering, Scientific Advertising, and What Women Want Chapter 5 A Long Lucky Run Chapter 6 Not with a Bang but with a Whimper Part II The Conquest of Time and Space Chapter 7 The Invention of Prime Time Chapter 8 The Prince Chapter 9 Total Attention Control, or The Madness of Crowds Chapter 10 Peak Attention, American Style Chapter 11 Prelude to an Attentional Revolt Chapter 12 The Great Refusal Chapter 13 Coda to an Attentional Revolution Part III The Third Screen Chapter 14 Email and the Power of the Check-in Chapter 15 Invaders Chapter 16 AOL Pulls ’Em In Part IV The Importance of Being Famous Chapter 17 Establishment of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex Chapter 18 The Oprah Model Chapter 19 The Panopticon Part V Won’t be Fooled Again Chapter 20 The Kingdom of Content: This Is How You Do It Chapter 21 Here Comes Everyone Chapter 22 The Rise of Clickbait Chapter 23 The Place to Be Chapter 24 The Importance of Being Microfamous Chapter 25 The Fourth Screen and the Mirror of Narcissus Chapter 26 The Web Hits Bottom Chapter 27 A Retreat and a Revolt Chapter 28 Who’s Boss Here? Chapter 29 An Absorbing Spectacle: The Attention Merchant Turned President Epilogue The Human Reclamation Project Acknowledgments Notes Index AAttention merchant: In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of advertising enticements, branding efforts, sponsored social media, commercials and other efforts to harvest our attention. Over the last century, few times or spaces have remained uncultivated by the 'attention merchants', contributing to the distracted, unfocused tenor of our times. Tim Wu argues that this is not simply the byproduct of recent inventions but the end result of more than a century's growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. From the pre-Madison Avenue birth of advertising to TV's golden age to our present age of radically individualized choices, the business model of 'attention merchants' has always been the same. He describes the revolts that have risen against these relentless attempts to influence our consumption, from the remote control to FDA regulations to Apple's ad-blocking OS. But he makes clear that attention merchants grow ever-new heads, and their means of harvesting our attention have given rise to the defining industries of our time, changing our nature - cognitive, social, and otherwise - in ways unimaginable even a generation ago In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of advertising enticements, branding efforts, sponsored social media, commercials and other efforts to harvest our attention. Tim Wu argues that this is not simply the byproduct of recent inventions but the end result of more than a century's growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. From the pre-Madison Avenue birth of advertising to TV's golden age to our present age of radically individualized choices, the business model of 'attention merchants' has always been the same. He describes the revolts that have risen against these relentless attempts to influence our consumption, from the remote control to FDA regulations to Apple's ad-blocking OS. But he makes clear that attention merchants grow ever-new heads, and their means of harvesting our attention have given rise to the defining industries of our time, changing our nature - cognitive, social, and otherwise - in ways unimaginable even a generation ago. [Publisher] A revelatory look at the rise of the 'attention merchants', the advertising marketeers who influence and control our consumption in ways previously unimagined