I have chosen to reflect on Marie Finch’s Task 10 – Attention Economy, as seen here.
Marie expressed her frustration with this task, and I could automatically relate! I am so surprised to see her time of under 5 minutes because even with me completing this task a few times, I couldn’t get under 9 minutes.
I, too, found frustration and anxiousness over the counter. I like Marie’s connection to Harris (2017) and Tufekci (2017), with users being lured into staying on a site as long as possible. I wonder if the algorithm for this site was collecting data on how quickly we can complete information or test frustration levels. Did everyone who started finish? How far did people get, and in what time?
I like how Marie mentioned the chat box and lock screen warning. These, too, kept appearing for me. In particular, the chat box had an option that said ‘move to bottom’ that I needed to keep clicking to see my data. I, like Marie, wondered why this was here if it wasn’t functional. Maybe to give the appearance of a ‘real’ site?
I like Marie’s connection to ESL learners on Facebook and confusion, equaling more time spent. Maybe this was part of the ploy here? How we are manipulated in media is a concern, as Marie mentioned. Like Harris’ TED talk, outrage is a good way of getting our attention.
While many of us did feel raged when completing this task, we persevered for the most part. I was glad to see what the finished screen looked like. I wasn’t able to get there, but I wish I had not let my frustration get the best of me during the captcha-like phase of this task. After connecting with Marie’s ideas, I can further reflect that this module has allowed me to reconsider how I use social media and what information I put into the algorithms.