By Ananya (University of Melbourne)
Picture this…
It’s midnight and you’re up scrolling on TikTok, unable to stop. You’ve seen an ad for a jewellery business, a political conspiracy theory and a compilation of cat videos. It’s late, so you close the app, guilty and glazed over.
That wasn’t just a regular scroll- it was a transaction. A productive input in the economy. The foundation for an attention economy.
What is the attention economy and where did it come from?
In the late 1960s, economist and Nobel laureate Herbert Simon warned that a ‘wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”. It was this warning that forged the idea of an ‘attention economy’- that is, an economy that operates via attention-based signals rather than just purchases. In a globalising world, pillared in online developments that lay information at your fingertips, attention is scarcer than ever. In fact, the average attention span dropped from 75 seconds in 2012 to 47 seconds in 2023.
It is easy to pin down an attention economy to recent years, given the rise of social media and digital transactions, but ultimately, it has always existed; we are just seeing it more clearly now. The idea of attention as a resource begins from the start of our lives. We cry with our first breath, and if that doesn’t work, we up the volume. In the end, we probably get what we crave- attention for our needs. We learn that attention satisfies our needs, and it has governed interpersonal, cultural and now economic interaction- but it is the digital revolution that has rendered attention truly rivalrous and highly profitable. Companies compete for your attention to generate profit and advertisers loom behind each scroll– they’re no longer simply building products, they’re bidding for your cognitive bandwidth. $853 billion (USD) spent on trying to get just seconds of your focus.
Zooming in and out: Mapping the Attention Economy
From a microeconomic perspective, attention is your classic relative scarcity phenomenon, unlimited wants and needs but limited resources. Traditional economic theory assumes consumers are rational agents- informed, deliberate and consistent, but the commodification of attention challenges this. Where focus is scarce, information processing is limited, distorting individuals, households and businesses’ spending and saving decisions. For example, services such as “Buy now, pay later” and Spotify autoplay, leverage scarce focus in encouraging passive consumption, fuelling a less informed consumer. Even then, an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) report revealed that 21% of buy now, pay later users missed payments due to impulse purchases and poor financial planning. The fact is, that scarce attention questions the ‘rationality’ behind some of the most central economic models- preferences, utility maximisation and even basic supply and demand. Additionally, conventional market signals are being replaced by attention. In the attention economy, scroll pattern and dwell time are increasingly being used by businesses to decide what, how and where to produce- three fundamental economic questions that previously were answered via purchasing decisions. Whilst this perhaps grants consumers greater power, it also poses the question- do we ever actually consent to, or realise our focus as economic choices?
On the macroeconomic scale, the attention economy reshapes global economic values, giving rise to accessible opportunity and development. Perhaps its most visible product is the influencer sector- now a US $250 billion industry largely driven by short-form content. Recently, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recognised the influencer economy as one of the fastest-growing digital labour segments, particularly in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and Indonesia, where young entrepreneurs are bypassing traditional barriers to global markets. In this system, economic participation is no longer limited to factories or financial capital- it is fuelled by creativity, originality and radical expression. The concept is simple- where attention is scarce, it can only be acquired by originality, rather than mass production and efficiency embedded in other economic models. In turn, some of the most successful participants of this economy are often artists, niche storytellers and diverse political commentators. Ultimately, the attention economy allows art, identity and radical thought to be harnessed as viable engines of macroeconomic growth.
Same story, different font?
The attention economy feels new, and it undoubtedly offers exciting opportunities and ideals, but its architecture still reflects traditional economic logic- prioritising competition, consolidation and control. Whilst it appears to empower consumers by commodifying focus and amplifying individual preferences, ultimately, it often only creates an illusion of doing so. Preferences are based on algorithms, which are susceptible to manipulation and polarisation. For example, a report by the National Institute of Health which found that confirmation bias was a bigger threat in an attention economy climate suggests that such preferences are deduced from mainstream perspectives, given that the algorithms favour and are built upon a certain kind and bracket of people. Additionally, the economy does not wholly offer accessible opportunity, given it still allows market dominance by firms with capital, evident in Meta and Alphabet (Google’s parent) capturing 52% of global digital ad revenue, collectively earning more than US$372 billion in 2023. Thus, it can be argued that the attention economy is in some ways, less a radical departure than a sophisticated rebranding – and an old economic model with a few new (digital) touches.
So, what do you think?
All things being said, the attention economy is arguably a step towards an inclusive and holistic economy. It gives consumers a sense of power, allowing our own focus to dictate economic choices and decisions, whilst pushing across a confronting truth: the economy isn’t just in boardrooms or trading floors anymore, it’s right there, at your fingertips- the question is how will you choose to use it?
References:
1. “UNCTAD: Towards a Fair Digital Economy for Small Business.” 2025. Upu.int. 2025. https://www.upu.int/en/news/2024/october/unctad-towards-a-fair-digital-economy-for-small-business.
2. Chemtob, Danielle. 2024. “Forbes Daily: The $250 Billion Influencer Economy Is Booming.” Forbes, October 28, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellechemtob/2024/10/28/forbes-daily-the-250-billion-influencer-economy-is-booming/.
3. Farey-Jones, Daniel. 2024. “Half of Global Adspend to Go to Meta, Amazon and Alphabet by 2028.” Campaignlive.co.uk. CampaignUK. August 22, 2024. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/half-global-adspend-go-meta-amazon-alphabet-2028/1885848.
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9. Paul Hendriks Vettehen, and Gabi Schaap. 2023. “An Attention Economic Perspective on the Future of the Information Age.” Futures 153 (October): 103243–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2023.103243.
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11. Review of Buy Now Pay Later: An Industry Update. n.d. Australian Securities & Investments Commission. Australia: Australian Securities & Investments Commission. Accessed May 2, 2025. https://download.asic.gov.au/media/5852803/rep672-published-16-november-2020-2.pdf.
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13. Steinhorst, Curt. 2024. “Lost in the Scroll: The Hidden Impact of the Attention Economy.” Forbes. February 6, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtsteinhorst/2024/02/06/lost-in-the-scroll-the-hidden-impact-of-the-attention-economy/.
14. Skyword. “The Attention Economy: Strategies for Captivating Your Audience in the Digital Age.” Accessed May 29, 2025. https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/the-attention-economy-strategies-for-captivating-your-audience-in-the-digital-age/.
