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The Attention Merchants Tim Wu (Atlantic Books)

The Attention Merchants By Tim Wu (Atlantic Books)

The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu (Atlantic Books)


$26.99
Condition - Very Good
5 in stock

Summary

A revelatory look at the rise of the 'attention merchants', the advertising marketeers who influence and control our consumption in ways previously unimagined

The Attention Merchants Summary

The Attention Merchants: How Our Time and Attention Are Gathered and Sold by Tim Wu (Atlantic Books)

Attention merchant: an industrial-scale harvester of human attention. A firm whose business model is the mass capture of attention for resale to advertisers.
In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of advertising enticements, branding efforts, sponsored social media, commercials and other efforts to harvest our attention. Over the last century, few times or spaces have remained uncultivated by the 'attention merchants', contributing to the distracted, unfocused tenor of our times. Tim Wu argues that this is not simply the byproduct of recent inventions but the end result of more than a century's growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. From the pre-Madison Avenue birth of advertising to TV's golden age to our present age of radically individualized choices, the business model of 'attention merchants' has always been the same. He describes the revolts that have risen against these relentless attempts to influence our consumption, from the remote control to FDA regulations to Apple's ad-blocking OS. But he makes clear that attention merchants grow ever-new heads, and their means of harvesting our attention have given rise to the defining industries of our time, changing our nature - cognitive, social, and otherwise - in ways unimaginable even a generation ago.

The Attention Merchants Reviews

In this revelatory book, Tim Wu tells the story of how advertisers and programmers came to seize control of our eyes and minds. The Attention Merchants deserves everyone's attention. -- Nicholas Carr, author of THE SHALLOWS
I couldn't put this fascinating book down. Gripping from page one with its insight, vivid writing, and panoramic sweep, [it] is also a book of urgent importance, revealing how our preeminent industries work to fleece our consciousness rather than help us cultivate it. -- Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and author of BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER
A profoundly important book... Attention itself has become the currency of the information age, and, as Wu meticulously and eloquently demonstrates, we allow it to be bought and sold at our peril. -- James Gleick, author of TIME TRAVEL: A HISTORY

The question of how to get people to care about something important to you is central to religion, government, commerce, and the arts. For more than a century, America has experimented with buying and selling this attention, and Wu's history of that experiment is nothing less than a history of the human condition and its discontents.

-- Cory Doctorow, BOING BOING
[A] startling and sweeping examination of the increasingly ubiquitous commercial effort to capture and commodify our attention * New Republic *
Forget subliminal seduction: every day, we are openly bought and sold, as this provocative book shows. * Kirkus *
Illuminating * New York Review of Books *
'Wu is much better than most, partly because he is a sceptic, but mainly because he has narrative flair and an eye for the most telling examples.' * The Sunday Times *
'Wu writes about the uglier consequences of our great migration to the web with the bruised zeal of an ex-millenarian.' * The Times *

About Tim Wu (Atlantic Books)

Tim Wu is an author, policy advocate, and professor at Columbia University. He has been variously named as one of the leaders in science and technology, one of Harvard's 100 most influential graduates and America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers, and in 2014 and 2015 he was named to the Politico 50. He formerly wrote for Slate, winning the Lowell Thomas Gold medal for Travel Journalism, and is a contributing writer for The New Yorker. In 2015, he was appointed to the Executive Staff of the Office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Additional information

GOR008168774
9781782394822
1782394826
The Attention Merchants: How Our Time and Attention Are Gathered and Sold by Tim Wu (Atlantic Books)
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Atlantic Books
20170105
416
null null null null null null null null null null
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - The Attention Merchants