📱Attention Economy
- Serafina Baldacchino
- Mar 21
- 2 min read
The Lap vs The Device
Issue #8
March 21, 2026
by MaiTai & ZuZu
MaiTai
Mom sometimes sits on the couch with the glowing rectangle.
The rectangle receives a great deal of attention.
Very intense attention.
I observe this with interest.
Because the lap is technically available.
But the attention is not.
This creates a complicated situation.
ZuZu
You can always tell when attention is somewhere else.
The room feels different.
Quieter in the wrong way.
Hands move, but not toward the creatures who are waiting.
We notice these things.
MaiTai
At first I attempt participation.
I nudge her hand holding the glowing rectangle.
Mom calls this “not helpful.”
I believe she is mistaken.
ZuZu
MaiTai believes eye contact is persuasive.
He will sit directly in front of Mom and stare at her face with great intensity.
Sometimes he also speaks.
His voice is very distinctive.
Small trills.
Soft chatter.
He sounds like a creature explaining something extremely important.
MaiTai
I am explaining something extremely important.
The lap is available.
The hands are available.
But the attention is being invested elsewhere.
This is a poor allocation of resources.
ZuZu
If attention does not arrive, MaiTai increases the effort.
Additional head-butts.
More conversation.
Occasional shoulder climbing.
Mom’s shoulders are one of his preferred observation towers.
MaiTai
The shoulder position improves the situation slightly.
From here I can supervise the glowing rectangle more closely.
If the rectangle continues receiving the attention
I am forced to conclude the device has unfair advantages.
ZuZu
I handle the situation differently.
If attention is not real, I leave.
Not dramatically.
Just quietly.
There are other windows.
Other chairs.
Other rooms.
Attention is not something you chase.
It is something you accept when it arrives.
MaiTai
Eventually the rectangle disappears.
Mom exhales.
Her shoulders lower.
The room becomes softer.
This is when the lap becomes useful again.
I climb up immediately.
The system is now functioning correctly.
ZuZu
Now the attention is real.
You can feel it in the way hands move slower.
In the way breathing settles.
In the way the room becomes still.
This is when we stay.
MaiTai
Sometimes attention wanders.
Some of it goes to the glowing rectangle.
Some of it goes to the creature sitting in the lap.
The results are usually disappointing.
ZuZu
Mom says the rectangle is useful.
News.
Messages.
Work.
But sometimes it is also something else.
A place where the humans look when they are tired of feeling things.
Or thinking things.
Or deciding things.
We do not do this.
If we do not wish to participate in a moment, we simply leave it.
MaiTai
Personally, I prefer the lap.
The rectangle has never once purred.
ZuZu
Attention is simple.
It goes where you place it.
And everything nearby rearranges itself around that choice.
— MaiTai & ZuZu 🐾🐾
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