Attention is one of the most valuable resources around [ˆ1].

Tech giant compete for even more ways to grab our attention, and content creators now hire dedicated thumbnail creators to increase their click through rates and so ensure their profitability.

I’m sure you’ve experienced a moment, probably in the last week, maybe in the last day, where you felt your button’s being pushed. Something that either deliberately made you angry, or vague so it made you curious. If I’m honest, it’s something I think about all the time in the writing I do (although i’m trying not to fall into that trap sometimes). In fact, on my walk this morning I saw my local Indian restaurant is closing down…so it can move to a new bigger location. That sentence is a perfect example of this kind of “tension, release” type writing.

Sometimes it’s just plain clickbait, other times it’s not deceptive, but still manipulates your emotions — like my previous example.

This situation presents us all with a dilemma.

Do we use the one ring?

In the fellowship of the rings, the council of Elrond has a dilemma; use the one ring against Sauron, or not.

Knowing the end of the Lord of the Rings, it’s obvious they shouldn’t, but from their position, it’s not clear. It is a great weapon, filled with great power, it could help them defeat their enemy.

In the end, they have the wisdom to not use the weapon and destroy it.

In real life we rarely make this choice. Instead we decide that we are the noble and right ones, therefore it’s okay for US to use this power (but they are bad and evil and so it would be wrong for them to).

Going against this logic is naïve.

In many situations it means we lose and they win, and that can mean real suffering. However, the example of the one ring should remain with us. We can win but in fact lose. By using the ring, we can become the same thing we hate.

True wisdom involves knowing when it is right to compromise on some values for other ones; fake wisdom abandons all principles for power instantly.

So what about attention?

Respecting other people’s attention

What if we treated each others attention with respect? If we used some of the principles of being “attention grabbing” to be clear and informative without hijacking people’s focus.

In generally I think this means we should avoid inflammatory language and above all make people not feel tricked.

Don’t validate the attention mongers

Today I saw a thumbnail for a video of “essential” tools.

In the thumbnail there was a pair of AirPod Maxes.

I felt that inflammatory reaction and wanted to watch the video and leave an angry reply about how they couldn’t possibly “essential” and even headphones weren’t.

But I stopped (this time).

Thousands of others didn’t (judging by the views), but the more of us who resist, the better for the internet it will be.

[ˆ1]: Judging by current stock prices, perhaps compute power is the most valuable resource right now?