Attention economy is known to be a collective human capacity to engage with the many elements in our environments that demand mental focus. This term reflects an acknowledgement that the human capacity for attention is limited and that the content and events vying for that attention far exceed that capacity.

Portraying myself in this piece in a sense of over-trilogy that is overwhelmed, over-stressed and over pressured from social interaction overload, which I had come to learn is what most teenage individuals suffer from, because in today’s culture, there are many devices out there that assist us in escaping the doldrums of daily life and finding a moment or two of pleasure.

Social media sites, apps and video games are just a few things that can be fun in moderation, but if taken too far they can suck time and snatch our focus away from daily responsibilities. Whilst this artwork expresses how overwhelming the attention economy can be on an individual, and in this fast paced generation that the content coming from social media is created to grasp so much attention of most young individuals, they end up practicing some of the things they see on these sites in order to feel good and they would keep coming back which turns into an addiction.

The birds created on this piece are cardinal birds that really form part of a distraction with a noise and behavior they can possess, they are created in red ballpoint pen with their feathers fallen on the blanket wrapped around myself holding a book with “pay attention” written repeatedly inside, a reminder to pay attention to productive things and goals in my life. The background is an environment or society caught up in (attention economy) that is mostly causing young individuals to feel pressured going to grooves or having to feel left out on social media causing depression and self-harm.