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Wconsumes your time? Is it productive and rewarding? At school, at work or in business, is your attention focused on things that make monetary sense? In the COVID-19 pandemic era, this question is more prudent than ever before. It gives answers on how one will be able to navigate the dynamics of the new attention economy.

It is also a question that is predominant as one wonders if they can stick to new year’s resolutions. Such resolutions require full focus on that which you set. They require attention to the goal without any distraction. According to one study, about 46 per cent of people who made New Year’s resolutions were successful.

With a little discipline, they can be achieved. I like to focus on the half-full glass rather than the half-empty one, so the fact that some can achieve the resolutions means it’s possible.

I initially wanted to add my voice to the corporal punishment debate today. It is a topic I feel quite strongly about to the point that I doubt that I can be objective on it. I find it utterly inconceivable why anyone would for a moment believe that in the modern age we can still be beating up other humans as a form of discipline, correction or punishment. That was perhaps applicable in the stone age, some two million years ago.

But once again let me leave that debate to the educators, the school committees, students representatives and policymakers to flatten it out to an amicable resolution. A non-violent

Ato the Oxford dictionary, depression is a medical condition in which a person feels very sad, anxious and often has physical symptoms such as being unable to sleep. Depression isn’t always defined as a medical condition, it can be a state of feeling very sad without hope. There are a plethora of devastating reasons why people fall into depression. I’m very sure that they’re probably fighting the most extreme battle as it is never easy living with depression. If you were to lend an ear to stories of depressed souls, you’d be surprised how effective it had been in their lives such that they’ve lost the treasures that could’ve brought honor to them.

In

HAT DISCIPLINE CCORDING DESPICABLE

life, some don’t even know resolution because I am not a fan, nor will I ever be a fan of violence as a means to an end.

As alluded to earlier, mine today is to share what all thought leaders need to be cognisant of.

That is attention economics at a time when the supply and demand of attention are constantly in a battle.

Time is often described as the most valuable intangible commodity. Time is so valuable that once lost, it can never be recovered.

RESUSCITATION

As the world begins a resuscitation of its pandemic hit economies, another economic shift is that of attention and the battle to gain it, especially in key sectors to generate sales and growth.

For a while, now the amount of information at our disposal as humankind has continued to grow exponentially, in particular since the advent of the internet and social media. Attention management has therefore become increasingly crucial to help people deal most effectively with the huge number of events and the there’s something wrong about them, they continue living with this despicable issue, affecting their normal way of life day by day. I once talked with Malwande Gamedze, a known actor here in Eswatini and founder of Purge Art Photography. He touched a very sensitive part of wanting to host a talk show for depressed people and I couldn’t help but think deeper about it after the call. He told me that a lot of mortals even demise because of the burden they’ve been carrying for so long and it has to be stopped immediately.

I saw his point of view and what he said was true. From my experience, when my sister passed away, I couldn’t cope without her as she was my everything. I thought how will I continue with life when she isn’t next to me I was very despondent, I’d sit alone thinking about her, and blaming myself you could call it depression.

But I told myself that the worst has occurred, it’s time I move on and live to make her proud. In that way, I always look up to tomorrow enormous volume of we encounter daily.

This may sound like a complex topic but in reality, it is as simple as it comes. So researching about the dynamic of the attention economy, I read that in 1997, a theoretical physicist, Micheal Goldhaber, warned that the international economy was shifting from a material-based economy to an attention-based economy.

He pointed to the many services online offered for free. Incredible.

He noted that fewer people would be involved with manufacturing and move away from an industrial economy, emerging careers would work with information.

INFORMATION

Although the “information economy” is a common name for this new state, Goldhaber rejected this, saying information is not scarce, attention is.

So thanks to the World Wide Web (www), I also tried to find the most simple and agreeable definition of the attention economy. They all took me back to the one who coined the term. According to the WhatIs website, and fight all to be successful. Starting from October, a talk show for depressed people will fire the first shot, so get your depressed companion to get help like counseling with a psychologist from SWAAGA. So if you feel like you want to outpour your burden, join us.

MATTERS

content

Your life matters more no matter what has happened in the past. Just live with the hope that God has greater plans for you. Conquer the world with its expectations as we have a bunch of witnesses out there watching over our lives. In that midst make sure that before anyone else, you make yourself proud. As for me, I want to make a name for myself in the Kingdom and the world. I want the next generation

The concept of the attention economy was first developed by Herbert Alexander Simon, an American economist, political scientist and cognitive psychologist. In his 1971 article, “Designing organizations for an information-rich world,” Simon explained how information and attention follow the laws of supply and demand:

“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a death of something else: A scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes.

ATTENTION

What information consumes is rather obvious; it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it,” he noted.

But the wealth of information can also get us on track on things like the resolutions. Technology is constantly at our fingertips, so we might as well use it to support our goals. Use reminders, a ‘to-do’ to know that there was once an intellectual, her name was Nonhlanhla Mkhabela. We choose who we wanna become in life.

If you choose to be a celebrity, then the ball is in your court.

If you want to be a nerd then again it is your choice. I would tremble hearing dread stories of how our parents struggled at work and business. Most of the time, their stories would end with,” life is not as easy as you think”. However, I realized after growing up that most of our limitations are in our minds. The moment you tell yourself about how life difficult life is, it will be more difficult for you.

INSTINCT

Learn to trust your instincts. Believe you can conquer whatever list and task management apps to help you on your journey. That is why technology when used for our greater good is an asset than a liability and it is not something that is meant to get us off track.

Also, if you do get off track or lose your focus because of the battle for your attention, you should not feel bad but get back on track.

Experts advise that we should always leave room for mistakes, nobody is perfect. Any setbacks that you may run into are not failures, but it is important to evaluate what happened, and figure out a plan so that way you don’t keep repeating the same mistake.

Meanwhile, back to the main reason for unpacking the attention economy dynamics to help us thrive despite the new battle for our attention.

COMPETITION

Every business today is in constant competition for today’s most valuable resource — attention - and that is without a doubt. And you are competing against 24–7 global news, memes, the latest internet trends like ‘usathi kani uya (when you thought you were, yet, in fact, you were already there), and news feeds filled with clickbait. If you are going to be successful this year, you must be cognisant of this strange new competitive landscape. Here a video of a person dancing to a popular Amapiano song competes with a live video stream of a serious national topic.

Remember, we are living in an attention economy. Experts, therefore, advise that the way to get attention today isn’t to shout more or shout louder, instead, think carefully about how you can use strategies to help people better navigate the information overflow.

Ultimately the best way as a consumer is to choose priorities over the pressure that is streamed to you. As a business, it is to be more engaging and value is driven to your consumers. Ultimately we are in a period of learning and unlearning. But life is just that constant cycle anyways.

you’re facing. I’m one person who believes that everything happens for a reason but I also know that every decision will catch up with you later; in a good way or torturing way. Decide today if you want to live with depression all your life when you had a chance to fight it. What happened has happened, move on. Talk to someone close to you, trust and confide with him or her. For I tell you that once you do that you’ll feel like a certain load has been ripped off your back. A decision has power, believe in your own decision. Whenever you feel like you sad, try swimming lessons, try reading a book, hike a mountain, sunbathe but just do what revives your inner being. Remember, you are not who the world says but you’re who you say.

Staying depressed for the longest time can never bring joy and success. We all want to be successful beings but we need to action. Give it your best! And yes, God has great plans for you...I love you all. Decide today. The future we always talk about is in our hands and don’t lose it while being distracted by something that you can ignore.

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