{"product_id":"the-attention-merchants-the-epic-scramble-to-get-inside-our-heads-9780804170048","title":"The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the award-winning \u003ci\u003eThe Master Switch, \u003c\/i\u003e who coined the term \"net neutrality\"--a revelatory, ambitious and urgent account of how the capture and re-sale of human attention became the defining industry of our time. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Dazzling.\" --\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOurs is often called an information economy, but at a moment when access to information is virtually unlimited, our attention has become the ultimate commodity. In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of efforts to harvest our attention. This condition is not simply the byproduct of recent technological innovations but the result of more than a century's growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWu's narrative begins in the nineteenth century, when Benjamin Day discovered he could get rich selling newspapers for a penny. Since then, every new medium--from radio to television to Internet companies such as Google and Facebook--has attained commercial viability and immense riches by turning itself into an advertising platform. Since the early days, the basic business model of \"attention merchants\" has never changed: free diversion in exchange for a moment of your time, sold in turn to the highest-bidding advertiser. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFull of lively, unexpected storytelling and piercing insight, \u003ci\u003eThe Attention Merchants \u003c\/i\u003elays bare the true nature of a ubiquitous reality we can no longer afford to accept at face value.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTIM WU is a policy advocate and professor at Columbia Law School. In 2006, \u003ci\u003eScientific American\u003c\/i\u003e named him one of fifty leaders in science and technology; in 2013, \u003ci\u003eNational Law Journal\u003c\/i\u003e included him among \"America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers\"; and in 2014 and 2015, he was named to the \"Politico 50.\" He won the Lowell Thomas Gold medal for travel journalism and is a contributing opinion writer for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50726491324690,"sku":"9780804170048","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8b76fb79-646a-4679-b798-ac011ffed747.jpg?v=1734871637","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-attention-merchants-the-epic-scramble-to-get-inside-our-heads-9780804170048","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}