num_pages: 160
description: As the saying goes, "Enough about me, let's talk about what do you think of me?" Hence the pursuit of attention is alive and well. Even the OED reveals a modern coinage to reflect the chase in our technological "ego-surfing"--searching the internet for occurrences of your own name.What is the cause of this obsessive need for others' recognition? In The Pursuit of Attention , Derber contends that it is a general lack of social support in America that causes people to compete so hungrily, and he shows how individuals will often employ numerous techniques to turn the course of aconversation towards themselves. The book illustrates and explains this "conversational narcissism" in sample dialogues that will sound disturbingly familiar to everyone. Drawing from research on face-to-face interactions in households, restaurants, workplaces, classrooms, and therapy groups, Derberdemonstrates that gender and class, as well as wealth, occupation and education, affect one's success in getting attention. The originality of his arguments lies in his ability to vivdly translate the social and economic forces of contemporary American capitalism into the ordinary experience ofindividuals, and, as C. Wright Mills put it, to connect private troubles with public issues.First published twenty years ago, The Pursuit of Attention has been revised and updated for this edition and includes a new preface and afterword. The preface focuses on changes in the manifestations of attention-seeking and the hyperindividualistic changes in the economy and culture that aredriving these transformations. In his view, individualism has actually accelerated in intense ways over the last twenty years. With the advent of the internet, greater and more immediate possibilities for attention are now available. Personal websites with images and information to attract anonymousviewers are common occurrences, and as people's attachments to marriage and work loosen, there exists a higher sense of being alone, and thus self-absorbed. Finally, the internalization of economic rules of self-interest breeds a psychological readiness to act egotistically even in the most intimatearenas in personal life. In response to this, the afterword focuses on how to restructure the economy and culture to humanize ourselves and increase the capacity for empathy and attention-giving.
language: English
title: The Pursuit of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life
titlecomplete: The Pursuit of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life
genres: Social Science, Social Issues, Sociology, Philosophy, Read For College, Psychology, Nonfiction, Communication
ratings_count: 160
publisher: Oxford University Press