In the digital age, information is endless, contrary to a few decades ago, and the demand for attention continues to grow, with research showing that people are now exposed to between approximately 6000 and 1000 advertisements a day, according to Forbes. The attention economy recognises attention as a scarce commodity and focuses on obtaining this resource. Whether this is harmful or not can be further discussed however it must first be recognised that arguably the attention economy has always existed but it wasn’t focused on. Attention has always been a scarce commodity as is only natural considering that the human brain would not be able to process information infinitely. While the way in which we address attention at the moment may not be optimal, it is a reality that we need to address; the attention economy may now be a harm as it has morphed into a concept that we would not have expected 20 years ago.
Currently we are witnessing the attention economy spiral. Companies are in a bid to gain as much consumer attention as possible so the output of advertising and media continues to grow, in turn resulting in even less attention available per media or advert. This outcome isn’t unusual considering that noise has always resulted in more noise (Vettehen and Schapp,2023); evidence for this is displayed in social gatherings, where noise continuously increases after it rises above a certain level. Within the attention economy, this is a critical issue as it exacerbates the scarcity of attention. One way of tackling this issue would be to introduce regulations limiting the amount of advertising and media each company or individual can release. Initially this may appear to contraining of an idea, considering that data collected on the effects of regulations on advertising and media between 2011 and 2022, depicted an increase of repression in media and free speech. The purpose of new regulations it to make advertising more efficient. The rise of the attention economy has spearheaded the process of gaining consumer information and processing it to deliver targeted ads that are suited to a customers interests, making it easier than ever before to distribute information that specifically targets certain people. Pairing this with regulation may result in more mindful media and advertising being spread, ensuring that information is still being distributed but in a more beneficial way.
The way in which the attention economy is functioning has a number of negative impact, particularly concerning mental health issues. Social media has a primary goal of attracting attention resulting in rapid and fast paced manner of being presented information. Doomscrolling, a term that describes endlessly scrolling through social media, particularly on tiktok and Instagram, has become a prominent issue with people spending hours on end aimlessly consuming media. This has reached such a drastic point that people now spend more time scrolling than they do sleeping (Zenith Media, 2019). This increased screen usage is correlated with issues of depression, anxiety and more. Initially people get increased dopamine from these platforms however, taking youtube as an example, consuming 30 minutes of contents results in people being happier however 70 minutes will lead to a lower mood (Centre for Humane Technology, 2018). People are getting so absorbed by social media that they cannot do simple tasks without having to take constant breaks to look at their phone. While this doesn’t bode well for people’s mental health, it is also detrimental for productivity. With such an increase in the number of breaks taken, productivity will decrease as people become more inefficient.
Productivity may also decrease because inattentive and attentive media use affects the brain differently, with inattentive media use resulting in diminished ability to process information. In the long term this not only affects people in the way they process the advertising and media shown to them but it also does not bode well in terms of labour. Compromsing the ability to process information, can lead to decreased productivity as it will take people longer to carry out tasks. This could particularly be an issues in countries where the primary sector is the tertiary sector, which requires the processing of vast amount of information.
Alternatively we can utilise the attention economy to spread critical information and make people more knowledgeable in terms of both academics as well as general or useful knowledge. The growth of the attention economy has led to billions of pounds being put into researching how to market content and make it more appealing. Using these tactics to share news as well as sharing mindful information can help with keeping people more informed. Often people cite being too busy as to read or watch the news or to pick up a new skill or hobby. Utilising the attention economy can fix these issues by providing short content that people will have enough time to consume without feeling burdensome. Moreover while time may be an issu for some, for others they simply cannot keep their attention long enough on the above tasks. Through analysis of marketing strategies used in the attention economy, tasks can be made more attention grabbing therefore enticing more people. Having said this, the issue of people being unable to focus on simple tasks and needing the tasks to be simplified to such an extent also needs to be addressed; this is a more recent development and has not been as persistent of an issue in the past.
The attention economy also proposes a number of environmental issues. In a bid to garner attention millions of email sand push notification are sent to people. These generates tons of e-waste and a large number of people don’t even look them and even if they do they won’t necessarily act on seeing push notification, essentially making them futile. Additionally, brands are becoming more and more drastic in an attempt to capture attention, particularly when it comes to sending pr packages. These products are often incredibly wasteful in their design and packaging and the product itself is often wasted as the people getting the packages view the prodcuts as a one time use. The products are simply a means to get attention for themselves on social media, as well as to get paid for promoting the product; 90% of these products don’t even get properly used. As the scarcity of attention grows, this problem only get worse as brands will be even more extraneous with the way they market.
A way of tackling this issue could be implementing carbon taxes on these companies to ensure that they are either less wasteful in their energy or to ensure that they use greener energy. This method however could simply negatively impact smaller businesses as they would not have the means to pay as high of a tax. Alternatively, it may simply be ineffective as bigger companies could just pay the tax if the benefits outweigh the costs, which will likely be the situation.
I believe that the current state of the attention economy is very harmful however it can be changed. This change should primarily come in the form of rules and regulations to ensure that the attention economy is standardised; it needs to be controlled in a way that it doesn’t lend itself to one sector or one company over another.
Writer: Sanuya Johnpetter
Editor: Sanuya Johnpetter
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