How Do We Survive the Distraction Economy?

When I got into TV some 20 years ago, it was the driving force of news consumption and shared reality. As influenced as it may have been by corporate and state interests, the handful of channels kept America on the same page, more or less. Then, 15 years ago, I was part of a movement that proved “second screen viewing”. What was on TV had a corresponding pulse in social, and a water cooler formed around the what was playing on the biggest screen in the home. That phone quickly became the first screen and video consumption across devices really took off — and the notion of a shared sense of reality around news and information was obliterated as personalized feeds exploded in literally billions of directions.

Now don’t get me wrong, I can see how social is amazing — but it’s also destroying us.

Let’s start with what is good: Social video has democratized rich media expression, allowing us to see and hear ourselves like never before in greater society. Rants and deep thoughts from cars, hilarious mash-ups, relatable moments inside a random grandma’s kitchen — all are just a swipe away. How lovely and silly and smart we can be as a people.

Social video has also done wonders for citizen reporting. Government officials describe a man pulling a gun being shot and killed by ICE officers, but nine other videos from regular folks show another story. (Never mind why government officials lie about what we can see differently for ourselves; that’s an age-old tradition. The point is now we have ourselves and our fellow citizens to ensure we get at least some of the whole story.)

On the other hand, algorithms regulate the kind of stories we’re expected to prefer. Like a sycophantic friend, agreeing with all our wants, we are bingeing ourselves into rabbit holes and expected to have the strength every single day to realize the hypnosis. How exhausting — and dangerous.

(Thankfully, we still have a healthy news infrastructure available to report critically, ethically and robustly enough to fill the web and airwaves with truth to keep us anchored to   essential information about our neighborhoods and the world, right? Um, not quite.)

The walled gardens have the data, attention and infrastructure to decide what gets seen and who sees what — and, critically important, how to deliver advertising value sufficient to siphon the dollars away from credible institutions and news operations. 

The situation was bad enough when news had to compete in a cable universe of 300 channels, print papers and websites. But now, it’s a wonder we know anything about our local governments and learn things about our national interests in content that doesn’t start with “What’s going on, guys?”

Today, as audiences fragment and dwindle and choice explodes, local and national news based on objective standards are subsisting on less audiences, lower dollars and less cultural influence. As we know, media coverage serves the public interest in that it uncovers truths society needs to make decisions, but it also used to serve as a deterrent for bad behaviors. 

Now, a scandal is washed away quickly by the volume and velocity of information coming at us, leaving the crimes against society easier to enact and the punishments of bad behavior more tolerable to the perpetrators.  

Enter the evil genius of distraction tactics used by politicians since ancient times but perfected to match the current state of attention.

So, for instance, a week that Jack Smith is finally set to testify about evidence implicating a president in crimes becomes a great time to spark a ruse about invading Greenland while insulting entire populations in allied countries. The next Epstein drop is a perfect setting for, perhaps, bombing Iran or invading Cuba — or maybe something as simple as attacking Taylor Swift.

One could argue that now with ICE descending mostly on blue states cities, we now have a fog machine on the attention economy sufficient to distract the majority away from things like the largest grifts in American history. Done in plain sight using crypto schemes and “running Gaza” with family and friends, enough people won’t know or even care to make a difference. They will be too busy with their heads down, finger flipping through dance videos, sports highlights and new AI-created videos of snowboarders getting chased by bears while rescuing puppies, or watching misinformation funded by enemies of the West, designed to tear us apart. 

It’s especially strange because the majority of people regardless political affiliation share similar values. They love their families and neighbors, want peace and live by some version of the golden rule. And we all seek some form of light. So what’s the pathway through this period? I’m hopeful there are many.

That silver lining of citizen reporting is something that will likely grow as more and more people realize that informing each other with source material is the end run on the oligarchy who aims to divide people while siphoning our riches. 

Also, the explosion of long-form, direct-to-consumer channels like newsletters and podcasts give informed people the opportunity to engage in critical thinking en masse.

And, thankfully, we still have things like C-SPAN covering the entire Jack Smith testimony, along with deliberations between our elected leaders, to help us actually make up our minds and see our disagreements aren’t as violent or wide as they appear by someone who wants you to smash that like button.

But it’s going to take supporting those things we find honest and true with our time, attention and our wallets. It’s a small price to pay compared to the alternatives.