That "pay attention to me" screaming is because of the advertising business model.
I'm not saying it wouldn't happen without advertising. But advertising forces otherwise rational people (e.g. newspaper editors) to do ridiculous things to compete for attention, because attention is money.
And because there are more people screaming for attention, everyone has to scream louder.
...While the people who are supposed to be paying attention find it abhorrent and start deleting their social media accounts and finding ways of paying less attention.
...So the people who need the attention to pay their salaries have to scream louder.
And so it goes around and around, while cities burn and lives are ruined because (as TFA says) nothing gets attention like a controversy that splits the audience into two halves.
I'm not saying it wouldn't happen without advertising. But advertising forces otherwise rational people (e.g. newspaper editors) to do ridiculous things to compete for attention, because attention is money.
And because there are more people screaming for attention, everyone has to scream louder.
...While the people who are supposed to be paying attention find it abhorrent and start deleting their social media accounts and finding ways of paying less attention.
...So the people who need the attention to pay their salaries have to scream louder.
And so it goes around and around, while cities burn and lives are ruined because (as TFA says) nothing gets attention like a controversy that splits the audience into two halves.