Jonathan Sawitsky

Director, Digital Experience

It's all about attention.

You never really have anyone's undivided attention anymore.

You don't even have mine right now. While writing this, I have been engaged in several different things, including wireframes, site maps, a conversation about branding, some phone calls, I tweeted about writing my bio, I texted a friend about going fishing and I started to read something that I failed to bookmark, and now cannot locate or recall what it was about. Lemme know if you see it.

It's not that I don't care. I do. So much so that I am using proper grammar, punctuation, and I am honoring traditional sentence structure. I could have chosen to tweet that last sentence as "So mch so dat Im UzN proper gramA, pnktu8n, +I am honoring traditional sentenC struct." But I care too much.

You don't. You don’t care or really pay attention. I have to resort to fake IM conversations and Tweet-styled sentences to hold your attention. You are a product, nee victim, of our new attention economy. I have to break out of the ordinary to ensure that you hang around to the end. But I do want you to. I am not sure why. I will figure that part out later.

And for what? What’s the payoff? A poorly written non-sector, perhaps. Maybe a wry observation about how special you are for getting to the bottom. What is our quid pro quo, Clarice?

The thing is, there is no payoff. Ideally, there is no end. This is the beginning of the conversation. Your attention is basis of our relationship. We are in a relationship now, you know. If you care to continue it. Now, I can’t call you, you have to call me. (Apex Tech commercial, anyone? It’s a regional thing.)