Artists Can’t Afford To Lose Focus In The Attention Economy

The dangers of rubbernecking and of doing whatever it takes to grab attention

Photo by Brands&People

You may have heard of “gapers’ block”, a subcategory of “rubbernecking”. Rubbernecking refers to the act of staring with great curiosity while craning the neck. It is most associated to the traffic jams caused by drivers slowing down in order to gawk at a crash (hence “gapers’ block”). In the early 2000s, rubbernecking accounted for 16% of distraction-related road accidents. Since almost 30% of road accidents cause slowdowns on unaffected lanes, we can see the vicious cycle here.

At the root of rubbernecking, of course, is curiosity. I have written before about the importance of curiosity to understand why we are who we are as a species. Curiosity is key for us to explore that which lies beyond survival. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it also elevated the human to unsuspected heights. In addition, curiosity is the gateway to the most valuable asset in the Information Age: attention.

Indeed, if we weren’t curious we would hardly pay any attention to anything that’s new and unheard of. Curiosity makes it possible for others to catch our attention and for us to catch the attention of others. It is because I am curious that I will click on an article or listen…