The War for People's Inattention
In the era of constant notifications and relentless filtering, playing with people's inattention on social media could be a more effective approach.
Having everything just a click away can lead to a certain apathy. The constant staging on social media contributes to a sense of heaviness, a relativism of everything and everyone.
Years of marketing have also degraded the digital user experience: pop-ups to grab our email addresses, non-skippable advertising screens on games, and news websites sometimes excessively laden with clickable links are just a few obvious examples. In essence, our brains, trained to get straight to the point, are struggling, especially with limited attention.
This heaviness tends to diminish our ability to perceive beauty. Blake Gopnik provides a thought-provoking analysis for The New York Times, using the example of an artwork by Joshua Frankel projected on a digital screen in Moynihan Train Hall. Titled "Within the crowd there is a quality," the 42-second animation appears amid a tunnel of advertisements lasting over 14 minutes.
The journalist's conclusion is unequivocal: we no longer see art amidst the billions of digital contents.
“Now that smartphones allow us to program our screens with content we’ve actually chosen, we’ve gotten better than ever at ignoring content chosen by companies and ad execs, on screens we can’t control. Instead of having to compete for our attention, you might say that Frankel has to compete for our inattention — a much harder task.”
Blake Gopnik
Competing for our inattention: letting ourselves be caught again
A paradox of modern times: we need to recreate the conditions to be surprised by the beauty of things, especially behind screens. In a way, what finally makes us look up from our smartphones is when it displays annoying elements (a bug, OMG!), or when something bewildering happens in our daily lives (Starbucks barista misspelled my name, OMG!, let's quickly share this vital information on Insta!).
To achieve this, different communities are implementing strategies that push people to break out of the routine and its flow of similarities.
In the fashion world, a return to the roots of "fashion blogging" is gaining popularity on TikTok. The idea is to draw inspiration from what was the style reference over 10 years ago, such as the looks of Tavi Gevinson. And share the content. A shift that can intrigue audiences and ultimately be more emotionally charged.
The strong attraction of younger people to a retro aesthetic is evident on social media. "Old" digital cameras like Olympus FE-230 or other Canon Powershots are highly sought after. Many accounts have recently been created to convey images from another era. Digital prehistory against the latest innovation touted for the iPhone 15, in a nutshell.
Turning to our inattention would thus be a way to create disruption, to force us to squint our eyes. To give more liveliness to an idea.
In the absence of knowing where we are heading, being able to immerse ourselves in the only extremity of the digital realm that we can control—the past—has a profoundly reassuring aspect.
Eric Briones, author of 'Luxe & Digital II' and co-founder of the Paris School of Luxury, provided an insightful analysis of the latest Balenciaga campaign:
“Mythical faces are replaced by the most extraordinary accessories of the house. The irony of the words is delightful, chaining 'Probably not what you're looking for' or 'no blabla' (...). Elevation strategies require a shift in generational focus, towards Gen X and less of Gen Z. And the 'Think Different' is very Gen Z, even Boomers.”
Eric Briones
By remixing a cultural code belonging to another brand, Balenciaga embraces insider humor aimed at a more mature audience. This is a logical continuation of the invitations sent in 2022 for Demna Gvasalia's fall-winter runway show, which were not presented in elegant boxes but engraved on the backs of broken iPhone 6S.
The second and a half that matters
The application of the famous punchline from the Lupin series: "you saw me, but you didn't look at me" finds its roots in various scientific studies. It turns out that if you don't notice new information in your visual field in the first second and a half, it's unlikely that you will notice it at all!
Google understood the power of changing habits with its search engine early on. In 1998, the famous "doodles" made their appearance. And surprised users around the world, whose attention was suddenly disturbed.
Ultra-community brands like We're Not Really Strangers continually mix inattention tactics with unexpected messages. You can receive an email from the founder in the style of a text from a drunken friend at 3 am, receive PDFs to print to stop getting involved in toxic relationships. In short, reintroducing friction into exchanges, inattention would give strength - and heart - to our online navigations.
Wander, launched in 2019, allowed Oculus Quest owners to get lost in the archives of Google Street View, geographically and temporally. The language of messaging relies heavily on cultural codes that play on the inattention/attention tensions. Easter Eggs - those hidden functions within a program or a video game - are still highly popular. For the latest pair of Terra Forma Nike x Off-White sneakers, the designers added a now legendary "Virgil was here" to the back of the sole, hidden at first glance but later discovered by sneakerheads.
As long as there are reasons to capture screenshots of wonder, there is hope for the web.