In the new age of digital media, where a movie can be copied/transmitted/watched for next to no cost, we begin to see what was always the underlying commodity: Attention. Peoples’ attention.
Apparently I have your attention now, though I might lose it by the end of this sentence… No? Soon then.
Although, what is attention?
It’s more than what your eyes land upon, because it has to do with what your mind does with that image or sound or experience. Attention is a state of mind.
We see this in the words we use to describe attention: we pay attention, give it, we command it, we grab people’s attention and hold it, and we loose it. We often speak of kids wanting it or trying to get it.
Is there a theological grid behind how we think about attention. Are you being Christian with the attention your giving things?