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The Unscrupulous Price of Your Attention

We may be presented with a unique opportunity on Sunday. A chance to add time back into our days. A chance to refocus on what matters most.
The Unscrupulous Price of Your Attention

To you and I, our attention is finite and scarce to give; en masse, it’s widely available for other people and businesses to take. Attention is our most precious personal commodity. Yes, a commodity. After all, it can be captured and sold. It has tremendous value - nearly $15 billion to TikTok and over $100 billion to TikTok. Remember, “if you aren’t paying for the product, it’s because you are the product”.

In this attention economy, we may be presented with a unique opportunity on Sunday. A chance to add time back into our days. A chance to refocus on what matters most. To dance with real-life friends rather than watch strangers. Laugh at the pet antics of the dogs and cats who live with us, admire our baked goods and kitchen creations, or play harmless pranks on people we know and love.

For all the wonder and benefits social media has created to connect and engage people. Its poisonous side effect is distraction. Distraction is the destruction of good intentions. Distraction is the vice fighting against the virtue of concentration.

The antidote is focus. Relentless obsession with what matters amplifies intentions into action. Hyper-focus on smaller controllable parts of life culminates in success. 

I’ve long admired consistent laser focus in others. Will Guidara had focus on becoming the #1 restaurant in the world. Ranger Bob was focused on being better. Rick Rubin has spent his entire life focused on making good music.

“Intention means every decision, from the most obviously significant to the seemingly mundane, matters. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything.”
Will Guidara, Unreasonable Hospitality

So tomorrow, regardless if a particular app exists or not, I hope you go your own way. If we wake up and it’s gone, be grateful that it was. But don’t protest. Give thanks for this new gift of attention freedom. Not sure what to do instead? Go outside. Do nothing. Just control your attention, don’t let it control you. When you choose how to spend your attention, you win.