Referenced by Michael when he was visiting us back in May and I picked it up. It happened to fit well with things I’ve already been thinking about such as The Algorithm and whether culture precedes from it or it precedes from culture. Basically, does the algorithm show us what we create or is it telling us what to create and then distributing that?
Mimetic desire plays a role here that the attention merchants tap into. So does Edward Bernays’ work.
The book is a history of advertising and marketing and its overwhelming effect, to say the least, on the culture and the economy.
He delivers the history through 4 screens, all progressing in a more immersive way that keeps our attention and gets closer and closer to the moment of thought or desire in us; closer to our irrational desires, as Bernays via Freud, would say; closer to an effective control over the society. Don’t picture control at gun point or control from the secret societies in dark rooms. Control here is satiation through giving us what we want.
The four screens: Print advertising, television (radio as well I think), the internet, and social media/mobile era. One could probably reserve a whole new screen for The Algorithm or AI.
Lots underlined throughout, so worth referencing when thinking about this stuff. Great read!