More than 50 years ago, American economist Herbert A. Simon described a tension that has become increasingly relevant as the volume of information continues to rise: people have limited attention to give it. His observation is often summarized as, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
Simon’s argument was that information consumes the attention of those who receive it. As more information circulates, people face greater demands on their focus and on their ability to assess what they encounter.
That idea helped lay the groundwork for the attention economy, in which advertisers, platforms and websites compete to capture people’s attention. In this model, information can serve as the means of attracting that attention, which has commercial value.
The growth of data has also created challenges for organizations. More information can offer material for useful insights, but finding high-quality data among large volumes of less useful material requires suitable technology and expertise.
Large language models add another dimension, according to the source article: Generative AI has made it easier to produce content, adding synthetic material to the internet, while AI systems are also becoming a way for people to access information already available online.
Sources: TechRadar.