The notifications have long since gotten out of hand. The notification managers are laughable. “Do not disturb” mode is a blunt and unwieldy instrument. The apps purport to manage the apps, to manage me, to lock out other apps, to induce what they call mindfulness, to prevent me from looking at any apps at all. I am pelted with offers from artificially intelligent agents, usually with feminine names, that promise to tidy up all the alerts and reminders, to lurk out of view until summoned, learning what I tap and what I don’t, making more and more of the decisions on my behalf. It looks like you’re discussing a meeting, the apps have learned to say. Would you like me to set up a time for you?
Concepts like “time management” and “productivity” and “getting things done” grow increasingly quaint. I can feel it: The “attention management” industry is coming.
The attention managers will promise One App to Rule Them All. Their products will sit between me and my calendar app, my to-do list, my email, my watch-and-read-later queue, my podcasts, my shopping lists, and my news alerts, throttling all the claims on my attention, deciding which to present to me. They will ask to be the John Kelly to the Trumpian Oval Office of my mind. A pleasingly generic voice will murmur in my headphones at algorithmically determined moments. It sounds like you’re brushing your teeth, it will say. Would you like me to play you The Daily?
This can shake out in one of two ways. There is a path of hope and a path of despair.
The thing I hope will happen: The attention managers will work by making the patterns of my attention visible to me. They will share with me the information that’s currently only being collected by third-party programmatic ad networks and major technology companies. They will encourage me to notice my own choices and the effects of those choices. Here are the tabs you opened today, the stories you started reading and didn’t finish. Were any of them interesting? You spent quite a while on this one, perhaps you want to save it? This many hundred emails came in, about 70 percent of them from senders you haven’t opened an email from in six or seven years, perhaps it’s time to bite the bullet and click those “unsubscribe” links? (That can be automated, just say the word.) By the way, you know this, but just to remind you, here’s a list of the networks keeping data on you, and here’s what they learned about you today. You have literally never clicked on a notification from this app; here is a mute button, just in case it’s helpful. (In fact, let’s throw in an uninstall button, to cover our bases.)
I hope the attention managers will be zealous about protecting my data, and keeping it, to the extent that portability permits, on my own devices. I hope they’ll endeavor to make the complex arabesques of my attention clearer to me, using algorithmic intelligence and tools of design to expose patterns, present options, and empower me to choose among them.
The thing I fear will happen: The attention managers will work by making the claims on my attention increasingly invisible to me. They will be built by the major technology companies, in an effort to bend my attention even more forcefully to their will. They will be constructed without regard for my security or privacy. They will charge me a premium for their use, and if I don’t pay up, they will dump me into a user experience so grotesquely degraded I will pine for the days of phones with cords. The real money won’t come from my payments, mind you. It will come from the third-party ad networks their Terms of Service will require me to open even more of my life to.
I’ve prioritized a few emails for you. Don’t you worry about the rest. Do me a favor and click this sponsored one first. Do you like how you’re not receiving many notifications anymore? Don’t you feel Mindful? Speaking of which, say yes and you can purchase five minutes of guided meditation right from this app. It sounds like you’re brushing your teeth. Would you like me to expedite your next PearlyBrite™ toothpaste shipment? By the way, a media organization has paid us an acceptable bounty to bring you this next news alert…
Matt Thompson is executive editor of The Atlantic.
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
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Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
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Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Frédéric Filloux External forces
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Mariano Blejman News games rule
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?