This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
As you listen right now to this podcast, you're probably surrounded by stuff.
Tangled earbuds, half empty water bottle, legos scattered on the floor, a bike.
Try to remember what made you buy all these things.
Hello, motherbones.
It's time to reimagine sneakers with the frayed shoelaces.
Sketcher shape ups.
Step into your new body.
Get on the holiday road in a Honda city.
Newspapers, radio, and tv have helped us learn about these products.
But in order to serve up billions of ads, these forms of mass media have had to first create a very special product of their own.
This secret product, you can't buy it in a store, you can't see it, but you are in the process of supplying it at this very second, this new product.
Attention is your attention.
We can lose our freedom and become entrapped, really, by doing what we think are voluntary choices.
Corporations ranging from Google to Fox News have found ways to grab your attention, package it, and then make money from it.
Their strategies are part of a long legacy of companies trying to capture and monetize our attention.
Columbia University law professor Tim Wu calls these businesses attention merchants.
Today we explore the rise of attention merchants and why Tim says the techniques theyve invented pose real risks to our autonomy.
In the early 18 hundreds, the newspaper business in New York City was bleak.