[lukegru]

This is not a good analysis imo. You don't necessarily gain any new awareness by paying attention to something or someone, you gain information. Whether or not you were aware of that information beforehand, or if it is new information has little to do with paying attention except for the fact that you might become bored or uninterested if it's not new information.

And, like another poster pointed out, this information is not gained with money, the "paying" is a metaphor and the currency is your attention itself. You give your attention away for the value of receiving the information.

On top of that there isn't just 1 metaphor in English (and I suspect other languages as well) for even the word "attention". You can fix your attention to something, or direct your attention, we speak of attention spans, etc.

[kaitai]

I don't understand this statement: "You don't necessarily gain any new awareness by paying attention to something or someone, you gain information."

How does anyone gain awareness of anything, then? Surely not by ignoring it?

I'd urge you to sit in the forest for a day (or the prairie or the desert -- anyhow, in nature, away from buildings and cars and phones) and pay attention. What do you gain from doing so?

You will find you simply notice different and new things if you spend the time (again, pay/spend... interesting). Perhaps you'll be able to codify this into "information". I'd be interested to see your notes.

[ronilan]

The metaphor used by the language differ. That’s the point.