/ Blog / / Blog /Slop is gaining ground. Low-quality content, including AI-generated trash, is advancing on all fronts for attention.
Whether it’s encouraged competitive behavior on social media or regurgitated content gobbled back up and spit back out via LLMs, we’re reaching a point very quickly where our attention is being spent on shit we never should’ve seen in our entire lives.
I’ve long-held a belief that “discovery” features on social media only serve to elevate content I don’t want to see. The work required to find what I do want to see is essential, because it guarantees my genuine interest. I went looking for it, and it’s worth finding. The moment something is brought to my attention, I have to question the reason and rationale it was delivered to my eyeballs. Who does it benefit? Me, or someone else? Probably someone else.
(Unless it’s delivered by a friend, giving an honest-to-god recommendation. If that’s the case, thank you. I love you.)
Because we’re in a battle for attention and influence. Even a second of my attention can influence my behavior and my thinking. Capturing my attention has unbelievable value. It’s why ads exist. It’s why a video or podcast teases the juicy thing right before an ad break. It’s why Meta truncates Threads posts and Instagram reels at very precise points to encourage users to engage. We’re being preyed upon, taken advantage of. Everyone is susceptible to this.
And the result of my attention being snatched away is less time for things that are actually of interest to me.
Time is limited. If we spend a third of it sleeping, and a third working, that last third is up for grabs. That remaining third hopefully represents the 8 hours each day that we have to make our own choices, including familial and social responsibilities.
I want to spend that third doing things I like, seeing people I love, eating delicious food, making art I want to make, and looking at things that inspire me. Everything that pulls me away from those things is an assault on my time, and I’m losing every ounce of tolerance for it.
Pushing that garbage away from me is requiring more of my energy, and it ironically requires more of my attention to get ahead of it, to stop myself before opening a certain app or website, to know that if I do, it will mean losing an hour or more of that precious third of my life.
In the battle for attention, I cannot lose.