Attention as Power: The Signal That Shapes Us

By now, we know that attention is finite. We know it's shaped by algorithms, hijacked by design, and looped into habits. But beneath all of that, there's something even more foundational: attention determines reality.

What we pay attention to becomes what we care about. It shapes our memories, our beliefs, and even our sense of self. Attention doesn't just follow meaning, it creates it.

Agency and Identity: You Are What You Notice

Psychologists and philosophers alike have pointed out that identity isn't fixed - it's constructed through patterns of thought, action, and perception. And attention sits at the center of all three.

Think about the things you return to, the stories you follow, the problems you wrestle with, the people you listen to. These all gradually define you. They filter what you learn, how you relate, and what you ignore. In that sense, attention is a mechanism of agency: a way of choosing who you're becoming.

We often think of attention as reactive, something pulled from us. But it can also be directed, cultivated, trained. And in doing so, we shape not only our experience of the world, but the shape of ourselves within it.

Signal Routing in Networks: What Flows Is What Matters

In computing and communications, systems are often defined by how signals move through them. A network isn't just a collection of nodes - it's shaped by what it transmits, amplifies, or suppresses. In other words: what flows through the system is the system.

This applies just as easily to social systems. What we collectively pay attention to - what we click, share, debate, mourn, celebrate - drives culture, policy, and even markets. The attention graph becomes the power graph.

At both individual and societal scales, attention acts like a routing protocol. It determines what gets energy, what gets solved, what grows. It decides what's real enough to act on. And in a world where media systems are increasingly automated, this signal is now shaped as much by code as by conscience.

A Final Reflection

We've explored how attention is captured, conditioned, fragmented, and filtered. But the deeper truth is that attention is the root signal of our lives. It's not just something we have, it's something we give. And what we give it to shapes everything that follows.

Which means the question we end with isn't how to protect attention, or even reclaim it. It's this:

What kind of world do you want your attention to build?