Today’s world is made up of corrupt politicians, evil corporations, and mindless people wandering about doing what they are told, not doing based on their own opinion. It would seem, especially as the media tells us, that the world has never been worse. But I disagree with this mindset that Odell has. She tells about how today’s entire world is motivated by the attention economy. How that economy takes away our freedom and ability to make choices rather, it encourages impulse decisions and a desire to HAVE everything. Odell tells her readers that we cannot stand for this attention economy and we need to revolt upon it. But to that I say why is it that awful?
Personally I think there is a happy medium between the two beliefs. I think that we do work too hard and that leads to unhappy lives, that some people lead unhappy lives because of the attention economy. But in our society it’s the thing that motivates us to get out of bed in the morning and try our best. The possibility of success. The possibility of having more than your neighbor. The possibility of your children growing up never needing to worry about college. This possibility is what motivates billions of people everyday. And without that same possibility many seem to become unmotivated. Over the course of chapter two Odell gives many examples of the communes of the 60s, where people got a glimmer of what could be but never was. The communes always failed because people wanted different things. Stephen Diamond ran his New Age Farm and at one point “fantasizes about burning down the barn” because the people that joined his commune over time drove him mad. He said the reason was a lack of civic duty, and the members wanting to just “escape” reality. But I argue that all these communes can be, is an escape from reality. We have since moved on from hunting and gathering for survival to more or less having fun with life. We can never only work for each other, simply because at this point in society it is not the most effective way of progressing. It is hard to find motivation for progress if there is no special reward for it. I see both sides to this as well. This same progress leads to the majority feeling like a cog in the system, just another dispensable life that capitalism takes for granted. While this disposable mindset includes many people it is only because they feel that way on choice. Just as similar to that feeling is one of possibility. Many ask what can they make of their lives, how they can become the best version of themselves as opposed to feeling useless. It is the nature of our current system to inspire possibility, but with an endless possibility it feels overwhelming and many people settle into their cogs. I find that at the end of the day, the possibility of something is better than a set course for life.
I now tie back to my ending claim in my introduction. Is the attention economy really so awful? I think not. Today it would seem that the world is completely falling to pieces and by the time i’m done writing this essay we will all be blown to bits. But the true nature of the world is not that. Today I can write this essay on a computer, designed by people who took advantage of that possibility that is offered to each of us. And I do understand that my writing could easily be written off as pure privilege regarding the opportunity of success, regardless I bring up the question. Would you rather have the choice of both success and failure or never have the choice at all?