Learning in an attention-based economy and society

Abstract

This theoretical paper investigates the learning process in a context that has been yet little explored but is extremely important. Learning in the context of the early information society has been studied by several authors but the information society itself has undergone significant changes since the mid-2000s so a new review is in order. The mass emergence of smart devices and the revolution of user-generated content-based social media has led to an attention-based economy and society. In this context, attention is a scarce commodity; smart devices, applications, and platforms compete for it. The attention of users, and learners, has become a value, as it is available only in small quantities. In this context, the concept of learning has to be redefined and a strategy regarding the whole world of schooling has to be prepered, and not just the use of ICT has to be defined. The paper will point out schools have to move beyond an ICT and device-based approach and shift the focus to the limits of human cognitive capacity, the selection and validation of information, and the challenges of high user experience. The starting point is that attention is no longer the gateway to perception and knowledge, and multitasking makes learning difficult.