Attention Economy

Arenas of Influence: Shaping Belief in the Digital Age 1 Arenas of Influence – Part 1: The Politician's Playbook 2 Arenas of Influence – Part 2: You Are What You Buy 3 Arenas of Influence – Part 3: The Lies We Tell Ourselves ← Series Home Attention merchant Harvesting awareness for advertisers Wu Consumer as product Sold to advertisers Penny press model The Ubiquity of Attention Capture In the history of commerce, few moments equal the significance of the invention of the attention merchant—a business dedicated to harvesting human awareness for resale to advertisers. This model, pioneered by the penny press, successfully separated the consumer from the product: while the reader believed themselves the customer, they were in fact the product being sold to advertisers. This breakthrough paved the way for commerce to breach the private sphere, colonizing time and space previously thought sacred—including the home, schools, and personal relationships—in an inexorable pursuit of growth. ...

The Digital Persuasion Engine: Dark Patterns, Surveillance, and Behavioral Control 1 The Digital Persuasion Engine - Part 1: Dark Patterns: A User's Guide to Manipulation 2 The Digital Persuasion Engine - Part 2: The Surveillance Nudge 3 The Digital Persuasion Engine - Part 3: Trapped in the Feed 4 The Digital Persuasion Engine - Part 4: The Slot Machine in Your Pocket ← Series Home The Architecture of Compulsive Checking The modern smartphone and its applications are not neutral tools; they are precisely calibrated machines designed to convert attention into capital. This capture strategy relies on the subtle installation of the “check-in” ritual—the impulse to constantly pull out one’s device in hopes of finding a new email, notification, or social validation. This habit is so tenacious that it often overrides more purposeful mental engagements, consuming roughly three hours of the average American’s day. ...