Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

More of what you want, Julien Smith and the Attention Economy

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Christopher S Penn
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More of what you want, Julien Smith and the Attention Economy

This afternoon, there was a healthy discussion on Twitter about the perception of women in technology and whether lowest-common-denominator entertainment, be it Dig a Tech Girl or Clash of the Choirs, demeaned women by focusing on physical attributes as the key measurement of their worth. This is not a debate for this blog post, and plenty of others can argue the merits far better than me.

What this is a blog post about is a reflection of something Julien Smith said at our PodCamp Boston 2 session: we live in the age of the attention economy. With so many channels of media, with so many things competing for the same 24 hours, anything you want to promote has to be marketed for the attention economy.

Whether a woman’s appearance is a factor at all in her worth is not the heart of the debate. The true heart is the attention economy, and the reality is that appearances garner attention very quickly, if fleetingly. That’s human nature, the way we’re wired and the way societies build on top of those fundamentals. If you want to capture attention, market with any strong emotion. It just so happens that physical attractiveness is the easiest, lowest cost, and lowest mental processing load factor on which you can compete for attention.

If there can be a solution to the issue of using attractiveness and surface traits for marketing purposes, it has to be that the stakeholders who want to foment change MUST deliver competing content that is more compelling, more powerful, more engaging, more attention-grabbing and attention-holding than lowest common denominator content. If you want lofty social values to eclipse boobies, then you’d better package and market those values in a way that makes them highly desirable content to consume.

I had this discussion recently with a teacher of mine, discussing how to combat negative comments and slander on the internet. My final point was that if you don’t like some of the content online, you can either struggle in vain to have it removed or changed, or you can flood the internet with the content that YOU want to have distributed, making it more compelling than the garbage, and let the garbage just wither from lack of attention.

Nature abhors a vacuum. If you want to displace lowest common denominator entertainment, have something ready to take its place. The beauty of new media is that to get more of what YOU want, all you have to do is create it.

Comments

8 responses to “More of what you want, Julien Smith and the Attention Economy”

  1. John Wall Avatar
    John Wall

    Whoa, whoa, whoa… Waitaminiute…

    You’re saying that we can’t just bitch on the internet? People might actually have to do some work?

    Reply
  2. John Wall Avatar
    John Wall

    Whoa, whoa, whoa… Waitaminiute…

    You’re saying that we can’t just bitch on the internet? People might actually have to do some work?

    Reply
  3. Christopher S. Penn Avatar
    Christopher S. Penn

    Oh, you can just bitch, but don’t expect anyone to pay attention!

    Reply
  4. Christopher S. Penn Avatar
    Christopher S. Penn

    Oh, you can just bitch, but don’t expect anyone to pay attention!

    Reply
  5. Whitney Avatar
    Whitney

    The internet, like life, is a mixed bag. It’s a mixture of intellectual debate and fart jokes; cutting edge science and misleading drivel largely meant to make a few rich and exploit vulnerable groups; supportive communities and trolls; great content, lousy content and everything in between. I love the fact that I can reach a ton of people on the ‘net, but I can also indulge my childish side as well. Sometimes heady intellectual debate is great- other times, jokes and meaningless play are just what I need as well.

    What I think happens sometimes is women feel vulnerable on the internet- this came up in a session at Podcamp Boston 2 as well- that the line between being public and transparent and being “exposed” and threatened can be a thin line. People are more apt to be less neighborly and more aggressive when the they don’t see and interact in person with the being on the other end of the screen and keyboard. And women often see verbal threats and physical threats as equivalents.
    The great benefit of the ‘net is how many women are involved, and how frequently sex and gender doesn’t matter very much at all. However, when it seems to be the only thing that matters, as can happen in real life, it can turn some people right off.

    For example,I know I have a less than favorable opinion of those involved in the online porn industry, for example, although I admire their entrepreneurship and their ability to make money. It’s just something I choose not to engage in for a host of moral and ethical reasons, but that’s my choice, and not one I wish to impose on everyone else.

    In contrast, these same issues are not a personal to men. men could not care less if there was a “Top Ten Best Looking Guys in Social Media” site, and would even brag about being included. Such a site dealing with women is just different.

    Reply
  6. Whitney Avatar
    Whitney

    The internet, like life, is a mixed bag. It’s a mixture of intellectual debate and fart jokes; cutting edge science and misleading drivel largely meant to make a few rich and exploit vulnerable groups; supportive communities and trolls; great content, lousy content and everything in between. I love the fact that I can reach a ton of people on the ‘net, but I can also indulge my childish side as well. Sometimes heady intellectual debate is great- other times, jokes and meaningless play are just what I need as well.

    What I think happens sometimes is women feel vulnerable on the internet- this came up in a session at Podcamp Boston 2 as well- that the line between being public and transparent and being “exposed” and threatened can be a thin line. People are more apt to be less neighborly and more aggressive when the they don’t see and interact in person with the being on the other end of the screen and keyboard. And women often see verbal threats and physical threats as equivalents.
    The great benefit of the ‘net is how many women are involved, and how frequently sex and gender doesn’t matter very much at all. However, when it seems to be the only thing that matters, as can happen in real life, it can turn some people right off.

    For example,I know I have a less than favorable opinion of those involved in the online porn industry, for example, although I admire their entrepreneurship and their ability to make money. It’s just something I choose not to engage in for a host of moral and ethical reasons, but that’s my choice, and not one I wish to impose on everyone else.

    In contrast, these same issues are not a personal to men. men could not care less if there was a “Top Ten Best Looking Guys in Social Media” site, and would even brag about being included. Such a site dealing with women is just different.

    Reply
  7. julien Avatar
    julien

    message me when you see me online next– i think i have a way to capture attention without resorting to boobies. 😉

    Reply
  8. julien Avatar
    julien

    message me when you see me online next– i think i have a way to capture attention without resorting to boobies. 😉

    Reply

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