The Attention Arms Race

I was just reading an article in the New York Time about how “Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites” and saw this brilliant quote from SocialMedia Networks co-founder Seth Goldstein:

“Advertisers distract users; users ignore advertisers; advertisers distract better; users ignore better.”

I think that sums up the problem of having advertising as the foundation for almost all online information and entertaininment. The arms race cannot escalate indefinitely. Eventually we will have to move beyond the tyranny of free.