[Student IDEAS] by Michelle Diaz & Marina Pellet - Master in Management at ESSEC Business School & Master in Data Sciences & Business Analytics at ESSEC Business School & CentraleSupélec
Abstract
This article will look into the definition of the attention economy, what it entails, how it affects society at large, and why everyone should care; particularly in this new age of exponential and wide-use of artificial intelligence. Moreover, it will guide a possible way forward for citizens to deal with the attention economy, and underline the sway that users have over the tech services that govern our daily lives.
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What is the Attention Economy?
Economics is the study of scarcity;1 from wealth, food, energy, or even time. Otherwise known as human attention. The latter example might seem odd. Nevertheless, human attention is in fact a scarce resource. One that is intangible, but is nevertheless invaluable. After all, we only have access to 24 hours a day, out of which, one third we spend sleeping.
Every time we decide to focus our attention on a particular task, our entire cognitive resources are directed to that one task at the expense of others. In economic terms, spending time focusing our attention on a specific aspect of our environment carries an opportunity cost, or the foregone benefit that would have been derived from another, unchosen task. Just like money, one can also exchange attention, as we usually allocate our attention to tasks in order to gain a benefit, whether it is learning a new topic, getting remunerated at work, taking care of our health and body through exercise, or releasing serotonin, endorphin or oxytocin by engaging in a pleasurable activity. This small analysis gives the idiom ‘paying attention’ all its economical depth.
In this context, the attention economy, a term first coined by psychologist, economist, and Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon in 1971, can be defined as the mechanisms and strategies put in place to captivate the scarce resource that is human brain time to generate revenue.2 Everytime you pass by an advertising board in the street that successfully catches your attention, every time your eyes deviate from the news article you’re reading to that newest trendy shoes ad on the side of the webpage, or every time Instagram shows you a ‘suggested’ video that you actually watch, you are participating in the attention economy.
Who are the big players after your attention?
As most people can guess, the stakeholders after your attention are predominantly technology, entertainment, & social media companies, in historical accordance with the traditional media players: the press, newspapers, TV channels, & radio. All, to some extent, are on the conquest of retaining human attention. But in our modern times, social media platforms have brought a new dimension to capturing human attention. Indeed, as they do not produce any content themselves, their sole purpose and main revenue stream is to sell available brain time to advertisers.
In essence, there are two types of companies after your attention, the subscription-based model and the advertising-based model. In the first category, we have the media and entertainment industry, like the streaming companies: Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, for example. In the second category, are the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok. Both rely on consumers to actively and consistently use the services provided, which results in tactics to achieve said result, a feat these companies have increasingly managed to do.3
What Emerging Technology is Driving the Attention Economy?
To sustain the audience or the consumer’s attention, companies need to serve them exactly the content they want. In the past, companies did this by conducting market research, adhering to what the market deemed popular. Today, this market research is bolstered by technology’s improved capacity to collect more fine-grained, instantaneous, and relevant data on human behaviour through the various digital platforms people use. Given the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), all this data can now be fed into machine learning powered algorithms that use relevant computational techniques to better understand and predict human preferences.
Nowadays companies are able to curate content in unprecedented ways. And over the years, platforms have successfully leveraged big data and AI to maximise the time people spend online. By collecting data every time we like, comment, share, rewatch, scroll and post, social media platforms are able to construct extremely detailed profiles of their users and their preferences. Such profiles are built through sentiment analysis which is backed by Natural Language Processing (NLP), the branch of computer science—and more specifically, a technique in AI which gives computers the ability to understand text and spoken words in much the same way human beings can.4
For example, Facebook can classify as much as 52,000 features on each of its users to simultaneously curate the most addictive feed, and target the most appropriate ads to maximise revenue.5 These features can involve pages followed and ads clicked amongst other things. In essence, AI has become the main strategy used by companies to capture the scarce resource that is human attention and further generate revenue.
Why Should You Care?
According to Dataportal’s 2023 digital report on the global usage of the internet and digital services, our lives have become inextricably linked with technology, with over 5 billion internet users all over the globe:6
It is imperative that we understand the repercussions that technology plays in our lives. Indeed, some of the digital services we use play on some of our deepest, most basic, and evolutionary impulses; to the detriment of our health and general well-being. By effectively distilling the audience’s desire through the use of AI, companies are now, more than ever, able to capitalise, take advantage of, and directly or indirectly negatively impact human psychology. Below are apt samples of said influences:
Mental Health
Consider social media platforms and the long-established relationship between their use and body image. The existence of highly perfected, curated, and edited images of influencers on social media like Instagram may bring about issues of mental health risks such as appearance-related concerns, eating disorders, and body dysmorphia. These issues predate the application of AI in these platforms, even when feeds were only occupied by posts of accounts you follow. But now, with the use of AI, it means that even when users make the active choice to avoid certain types of accounts or content, they may be unable to do so, especially as the ‘suggested’ posts in feeds take up a more important space than before.7 Consequently, AI further exacerbates the problem. What’s worse is that psychology has proven that even the things we particularly dislike or fear prove to be points of interest, akin to the desire of watching horror movies, even though doing so might give one nightmares.8
How many times have you scrolled through the social media feed of someone you do not particularly like? Might you have done something more productive, or at the very least, less emotionally taxing instead?
Polarisation & Digital Escapism
On the other hand, having an algorithm cater to specific interests can be viewed as a good thing in that users are able to easily discover more content that they will enjoy, as is the case for entertainment platforms with AI-powered recommendation systems. But the increased personalisation comes with caveats like polarisation and digital escapism.
Polarisation refers to the tendency of social media users to fall into a vacuum of content that only reinforces their view of the world, thus giving them a biased and distorted view of reality.9 Such is the case with recommended content on platforms, wherein “social media robots, more commonly known as “bots,” are becoming a formative tool of online radicalization.”10 It is easy to draw the line from these bots to the rampant polarisation online that has instigated many incidents of real-life violence owing to the spread of disinformation, conspiracy theories, and radical viewpoints. Such is the case with the 2017 Rohingya Massacre in Myanmar, wherein people were “killed, tortured, raped, and displaced in the thousands as part of the Myanmar security forces’ campaign of ethnic cleansing. In the months and years leading up to the atrocities, Facebook’s algorithms were intensifying a storm of hatred against the Rohingya which contributed to real-world violence.” – Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.11 Indeed, researchers have predicted that the dawn of effective and persuasive generative AI will further exacerbate the problem.12
Secondly, we have digital escapism, which refers to the use of digital technology and the internet as a means to escape the realities of our lives. This new trend of digital escapism, in addition to private spaces in the virtual world,13 has been further exacerbated by AI. The act of escaping itself may not be all that bad, after all, we all need a reprieve from time to time. However, research has shown that excessive escape to the digital world has given rise to psychological disorders. It brings forth “Internet Disorder syndrome” which invites stress, depression, deviation from one's own goal, sleeplessness and anxiety.14
Decrease in Attention Span
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, attention span is defined as “the length of time during which one (such as an individual or a group) is able to concentrate or remain interested.”15 Historically, scientists hypothesise that having a shorter attention span served humans well, in that it allowed us to quickly monitor for danger. However, in today’s digital era, humanity’s shorter attention span can be detrimental. In fact, the US National Center for Biotechnology Information claims that the average human attention span has dropped from 12 to 8 seconds between 2000 and 2013, just one second below that of a goldfish, which is why the phenomena of a decreasing ability to concentrate on a task was called the “Goldfish Effect”. Social media is often held as most accountable for this drop in our attention span.
Now, consider the push through notifications on our phones from these platforms. Each ping conditions us to reach for our phones. So much so that even without that ping, people find themselves reaching for their phones anyway; what researchers have come to call phantom phone signals.16 Given the boost that AI gives to social media and entertainment companies after our attention, it is imperative that society at large understands how detrimental a decrease in one’s attention span can be for their lives. The inability to focus can decrease productivity at work, make it harder to complete personal chores, and at their very worst, impact personal relationships.17
How many times have you found yourself annoyed with someone using their phone while you’re relaying a story to them? How many times have you been that person? Do we not owe the people we care about our absolute attention? Do we not want that for ourselves? Unfortunately, without outsized intervention, it is an uphill battle for most users.
Interventions: What, Where, & Really?
The mechanism behind social media and entertainment platforms have not always used AI to construct their various newsfeeds. In other words, while the feeds could be addictive, they were not always powered by AI. At one point, it was true to its name; it was simply a feed of the content posted by people you followed. Not a curated feed designed to explicitly keep you online for as long as possible.18 The change into algorithmic feeds came into effect largely around 2009, with Facebook leading the way by prioritising popular posts.19 But the mission was always to retain users on the platforms for as long as possible, and the use of AI is simply the most powerful way of currently doing so.
But big tech is aware of the backlash, and has subsequently introduced measures that some may call ways to curb the excessive use of their services. And the release of Netflix’s documentary on the attention economy: The Social Dilemma, has made people more aware of the issue.20 Meanwhile, Apple and other technology device manufacturers have introduced app timers to help users better manage their time and curb the hours they spend in front of a screen. And child settings can be applied on these devices to safeguard internet use, excluding certain websites and searches that may be bad for children.
Furthermore, some companies have even implemented what can be called more concrete measures like Alphabet and Meta. Indeed Google Chrome has been on course to phase out third-party cookies since 2021, with 1% of cookies being phased out in early 2024.21 Moreover, Meta has increasingly over the years made privacy controls more accessible for its users; users now have the option of tweaking what data, if any, is shared with the advertisers.22
But how effective are these efforts really? Might we even call these interventions? Or just ways for these companies to seemingly address customer concern, and in effect continuously sell their products? Or worse yet, might these tweaks just be another push to further sell said products, as an appeal to concerned consumers? After all, as anyone with a smartphone knows, you can always just extend the timer. Does it not, in some way, feel like the impetus of responsibility is being pushed onto users? Do individual users actually stand a chance when a former Google designer, Tristan Harris compares the level of addiction to a "Vegas slot machine" as users "check their phones hoping that they have a notification, as if they are pulling the lever of a slot machine hoping they hit the jackpot"?23
As the business models of social media and streaming companies continue to largely be based on the attainment and maintenance of people’s attention, it follows that society at large cannot expect intervention to primarily come from companies themselves. From a business and profit driven perspective, these companies cannot be effectively counted upon to match their interventions to reduce screen time to healthier levels. Particularly, if said levels fall below what is required to continue rapid company growth and appease shareholders.
Regulation?
Currently, the European Union has led the way when it comes to regulation of big tech companies. For example, through the recent Digital Services Act (DSA), regulating illegal content, transparent advertising, and disinformation online, the Digital Market Act (DMA), ensuring a higher degree of competition in the European Digital Markets by preventing the largest digital players (defined as Gatekeepers) from abusing their market position and power by enabling smaller companies to enter the market on a more level playing field. And lastly, albeit the most known, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU), a regulation on privacy and data protection in Europe, adopted in April 2016 and became enforceable in May 2018.
The GDPR remains one of the core regulations on privacy and data protection in Europe, and arguably one of the biggest tech regulations so far, which has sparked similar regulations across the globe.24 In 2023, the EU AI Act, the first regulation on the use of AI was adopted by the parliament, with talks to begin with EU countries in the Council on the final form of the law underway.25 Outside Europe, and given the testimony of Sam Altman, the OpenAI chief executive on the repercussions of AI earlier this year in Congress, multiple actors within the US government are jostling to regulate AI.26 In spite of all this and given the historical speed at which regulation comes into play around big tech, it is imperative that users of digital services and social media platforms refrain from being complacent.
A Way Forward?
As individual users of these entertainment and social media platforms, what is there to do? How might we shift the powers that be? Do we have that ability? The Social Dilemma was released in 2020, and three years later, here is an article calling your attention yet again to the attention economy. Outlook is rather grim. But users can call for better behaviour from big tech — it may not seem like much, but calling attention to the issue, with a big enough mic, and a coordinated enough mass, might speed up the process of accountability. Indeed, let’s not forget that consumers create demand and have the power to shift the actions of big companies through their choices.
Just like we have seen the rise in demand for more sustainable and ethical products, we can hope to see a mass gathering and ask for anthropologically beneficial tech products that promote learning, collaboration, and solidarity; stepping away from the negative effects we’ve outlined. Much like the environmentalist movement, where people make conscious decisions to fly less, buy local groceries, and support circular brands, online users can shift to digital minimalism. By using alternative internet services like Duckduckgo, Vivaldi, or Ecosia, users are able to limit data collection from big tech to some degree, reduce their time online, and help the planet along the way.
Additionally, the decentralisation movement or Web 3.0, which is an alternative way for the internet to work could be something that users might think to further support. In essence, the decentralisation of the internet means widely distributing the control of online information, interactions, and experience of users. Such a system would see the reorganisation of the internet into a peer-to-peer infrastructure as opposed to the current centralization of data amongst hosting services.27 More concretely, this would mean that large amounts of data might no longer be concentrated in the hands of those that provide the services we use, like Alphabet, Meta, and Apple.
But for now, reading this article has hopefully made you more aware of how your phone, that you bought with your hard-earned money, might be serving big tech more than it serves you. The first step to addressing any problematic issue is awareness; we all need to pay a bit more attention to the consequences of our time online. Remember, the attention economy is not an immovable object, met with the right amount of pressure, it can change. Like any business model. Given that, shall we turn the tide and assure your phone serves you first? Sharing this article is a start.
References
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economics
[2] https://econreview.berkeley.edu/paying-attention-the-attention-economy/
[3] https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-global-overview-report
[4] https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4893/16/6/271
[5] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/15/the-key-to-a-facebook-stock-recovery-an-ai-based-attack-on-amazon.html
[6] https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-global-overview-report
[7] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1740144522000638
[8] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-think-neandertal/202110/why-we-enjoy-horror-films
[9] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040162522004632
[10] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-22552-9_4
[11] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/
[12] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/technology/ai-chatbots-disinformation.html
[13] [14] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344640651_Digital_Escapism
[15] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/attention%20span
[16] [17] https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/how-to-increase-attention-span
[18] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/technology/instagram-feed.html
[19] https://wallaroomedia.com/facebook-newsfeed-algorithm-history/
[20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Dilemma
[21] https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/20/google-starts-the-ga-rollout-of-its-privacy-sandbox-apis-to-all-chrome-users/
[22] https://www.facebook.com/privacy/center
[23] https://launchpad.syr.edu/3-things-we-learned-about-social-media-from-netflixs-the-social-dilemma/
[24] https://www.statista.com/topics/9651/tech-regulations-in-europe/#topicOverview
[25] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence
[26] https://hbr.org/2023/05/who-is-going-to-regulate-ai
[27] https://ischool.syr.edu/decentralized-web-experts/
