attention economy

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a framework for understanding media and digital platforms that treats human attention as the scarce resource being competed for, allocated, and monetised; coined by Herbert Simon and developed by Michael Goldhaber, the attention economy concept describes how digital platforms — social media, streaming services, news sites — are designed to capture and retain user attention as a means of generating advertising revenue; critics argue that the attention economy systematically exploits psychological vulnerabilities, degrades the quality of public discourse, and produces a race to the bottom in content quality as platforms optimise for engagement metrics rather than informational or cultural value