Attention economy
"[3] Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck[4] add to that definition:Attention is focused mental engagement on a particular item of information.
This is done, for instance, by creating filters to make sure viewers are presented with information that is most relevant, of interest, and personalized based on past web search history.
Erik Brynjolfsson, Seon Tae Kim and Joo Hee Oh show that this makes it possible to formally analyze the attention economy and putting values on free goods.
"[19] For a 1999 essay, Georg Franck argued "income in attention ranks above financial success" for advertising-based media like magazines and television.
In economic theory, market exchanges may have unintended consequences, called externalities, that aren't reflected in the price consumers pay upfront.
Given the monetization of human attention, social media platforms are designed to maximize user engagement, namely by influencing the brain's reward system.
When users receive positive feedback on social media or view novel content, their brain releases dopamine, leading them to stay on the platform for extended periods of time and come back to it repeatedly.
Social media addiction has been linked to negative mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.
[24][25] During the 2010s, social media in conjunction with online advertising technologies inspired significant growth in the business model of the attention economy.
[26][27] A study conducted by researchers at Hanken School of Economics found that when the attention economy is paired with online advertising, the resulting financial arrangement can lead to the circulation of fake news and the amplification of disinformation for profit.
[27] Another negative externality of the attention economy is the rise of surveillance capitalism, which describes the practice of companies collecting personal data to buy and sell for profit.
Algorithms in the attention economy are designed to maximize engagement, often prioritizing content that resonates with dominant cultural identities.
[37] Traditional media advertisers followed a model that suggested consumers went through a linear process they called AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action).
[39] Advertisers that produce attention-grabbing content that is presented to unconsenting consumers without compensation have been criticized for perpetrating attention theft.
[42] In economics, an externality is a by-product of a production process that imposes burdens (or supplies benefits), to parties other than the intended consumer of a commodity.
[44] This evolved from an article on the Federal Communications Commission (1959),[45] in which Coase claimed that radio frequency interference is a negative externality that could be controlled by the creation of property rights.
Costs could also vary for an individual depending on context, perhaps rising during the busy holiday season and falling during the dog days of summer.
Ethical considerations also include the transparency of these models and their impact on the informational ecosystem, potentially leading to biased or manipulated content.
