162 Days of Insight

Day 115: The New Attention Economy

Consciousness as the Scarcest Resource

Your grandmother’s attention wasn’t currency to be spent, it was presence to be shared.

 

Note: This article is for educational and informational purposes only. See full disclaimer at the end.

Your grandmother never checked her phone during dinner. She couldn’t—it didn’t exist. But she also never forgot your birthday, your favorite meal, or the story she was telling you last week. Her attention wasn’t currency; it was presence.

You touch your phone 2,617 times today [22]. Not because you want to. Because an entire economy depends on it.

The shift happened so gradually we barely noticed. Somewhere between the first iPhone and the tenth TikTok scroll of the morning, human attention became the most valuable commodity on Earth. Not oil. Not data. Not even money itself. Just the simple, ancient act of paying attention—now repackaged, algorithimized, and traded on invisible markets worth trillions.

Recent research from the London School of Economics reveals that attention is transitioning from a metaphorical currency to a literal one, with platforms developing sophisticated exchange models that treat human focus as a tradable asset [1]. 

The paper proposes that attention could eventually fulfill the role money plays in our current economic system—a prediction that feels less like science fiction and more like tomorrow’s business model.

The Architect of Addiction

“The mastery of the short form algorithm is a mastery over human attention,” says Roy Lee, the controversial 21-year-old founder whose startup Cluely went from zero to $5 million in annual recurring revenue in just three months [11]. Lee, who was expelled from both Harvard and Columbia for his attention-hacking tools, understands something most of us are only beginning to grasp: in 2025, capturing attention isn’t just business—it’s war.

Lee’s approach is brutally honest. “Everybody scrolls,” he says. “The CEO of every single Fortune 500 company is scrolling through Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram. Everybody scrolls.” His viral content machine generates 200 videos a day, creating what he calls “brute force industrial scale marketing.” But here’s the unsettling part: it works. Million-dollar enterprise contracts signed because executives found his Twitter funny [11].

This isn’t entrepreneurship anymore. It’s attention engineering.

The Goldfish Paradox

Here’s a fact that should terrify you: the average human attention span has dropped to 8.25 seconds [12]. A goldfish can focus for nine.

The decline maps perfectly to our technological evolution. In 2000, before smartphones colonized our pockets, humans could sustain attention for 12 seconds. By 2013, as social media reached critical mass, we’d lost a third of our focusing power. Today, our screen-based attention has cratered from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds [12].

But this isn’t just about shorter videos or snappier content. Research published in Scientific Reports shows that the mere presence of a smartphone—even when turned off—reduces our cognitive performance [2]. The device doesn’t need to ring, buzz, or light up. It just needs to exist in our peripheral awareness, silently siphoning the very resource it was designed to capture.

The platforms know this. They’ve weaponized it.

The Dopamine Machine

TikTok doesn’t just want your attention—it wants to restructure your brain.

Studies from 2022 found that TikTok’s algorithm is more addictive than any other social media platform, employing what researchers call “time distortion”—users lose track of hours while consuming content, their perception of time warped by the constant dopamine hits [3]. The platform’s average user now spends 59 minutes daily on the app, up from 27 minutes in 2019 [4].

The mechanism is elegant in its manipulation: variable reward schedules identical to slot machines, combined with an infinite scroll that eliminates natural stopping points [10]. Each video is only 15-60 seconds, perfectly calibrated to our diminishing attention spans, while the algorithm learns your desires better than you know them yourself.

Dr. Gloria Mark’s research reveals the true cost: after each interruption, it takes an average of 25 minutes to fully refocus on the original task [12]. In a world where the average knowledge worker checks email every 6 minutes, we’re living in a perpetual state of cognitive switching, never quite present, never quite focused.

The AI Amplifier

Enter artificial intelligence—the force multiplier in the attention wars.

Content that once took hours to create now takes seconds [13]. A study suggests roughly 30-40% of text on active webpages is already AI-generated. The Generative AI market for content creation, valued at $14.84 billion in 2024, is expected to reach $19.62 billion by 2025.

MrBeast doesn’t just make viral videos anymore. He’s built an attention empire: production houses, product lines, distribution networks. He doesn’t pay for reach—he commands it [13]. This is the new playbook: use AI to create content at industrial scale, build parasocial relationships with millions, then monetize attention from every conceivable angle.

But here’s where it gets darker. Research from 2024 shows that AI-generated marketing imagery can now surpass human-made images in quality, realism, and effectiveness [5]. We’re entering an era where synthetic content is more engaging than reality—where AI understands what captures your attention better than you do.

The Corporate Arms Race

The business world has noticed. By 2025, the global native advertising market will reach $400 billion—a 372% increase from 2020 [14]. Companies aren’t just advertising anymore; they’re competing in an attention warfare where 85% of online ads fail to hold attention for even 2.5 seconds.

The Media Rating Council and Interactive Advertising Bureau are developing standardized attention measurement guidelines, expected to roll out in early 2025 [15]. Soon, attention won’t just be metaphorically traded—it will have official metrics, exchange rates, and futures markets.

McKinsey reports that 71% of organizations now regularly use generative AI in at least one business function [16]. Marketing departments are transforming into attention engineering units, with some companies requiring their head of marketing to have at least 100,000 social media followers. If they can’t capture attention personally, the logic goes, how can they do it for the brand?

The Consciousness Cost

But what happens to consciousness when attention becomes currency?

A comprehensive review of smartphone cognition research reveals that habitual device use may have lasting impacts on our ability to think, remember, pay attention, and regulate emotion [6]. The fear isn’t just that we’re becoming distracted—it’s that we’re rewiring our brains for distraction.

Neurological studies show that social media engagement alters dopamine pathways in ways analogous to substance addiction [7]. The prefrontal cortex—responsible for executive function and decision-making—shows decreased activity in heavy users. Meanwhile, the amygdala, our emotional response center, becomes hyperactive.

The paradox is crushing: the more we optimize for capturing attention, the less attention we have to give. A 2025 study found that blocking mobile internet on smartphones improved sustained attention by the equivalent of reversing 10 years of age-related cognitive decline [8]. The improvement was similar to a quarter of the difference between healthy adults and those with ADHD.

The Mindfulness Resistance

Yet within this attention economy, a counter-movement is emerging—not to opt out, but to reclaim sovereignty over our own consciousness.

Researchers are calling “dopamine-scrolling” a distinct behavioral pattern requiring urgent public health attention [9]. Unlike doom-scrolling (seeking negative content) or general internet addiction, dopamine-scrolling operates through reward mechanisms that make it uniquely habit-forming.

The solution isn’t to abandon technology—that ship has sailed. Instead, it’s to become conscious participants rather than unconscious products. As Nicholas Carr noted in “The Shallows,” the brain changes according to our experiences [17]. Books train deep focus; devices encourage surface skimming. The question becomes: which brain do we want to cultivate?

Some are already choosing. Digital minimalists who treat their attention like a trust fund—spending carefully, investing wisely. Parents who create device-free zones not as punishment but as sanctuary. Professionals who understand that in an economy where everyone is shouting, the ability to sustain deep focus becomes a superpower.

The Choice Architecture

The attention economy isn’t inherently evil. It’s a tool, and like all tools, its value depends on how we wield it.

AI can help us capture the right attention for our work, our art, our causes. It can amplify voices that need to be heard, connect communities across continents, democratize access to audiences previously gatekept by traditional media. The creator economy, powered by AI tools, is enabling millions to build sustainable businesses from their creativity [18].

But this same system can also hijack our children’s developing brains, fragment our ability to think deeply, and reduce human experience to an endless scroll of synthetic content optimized for engagement rather than enlightenment.

The most successful brands in 2025 won’t be those that capture the most attention, but those that respect it [19]. They’re moving away from “viral at any cost” toward what researchers call “audience-focused virality”—creating genuine value for specific communities rather than casting the widest possible net.

The New Literacy

Teaching our children to read was the educational imperative of the 20th century. Teaching them to manage their attention may be the imperative of the 21st.

This isn’t about screen time limits or app restrictions. It’s about developing what researchers call “attention literacy”—understanding how our focus works, what depletes it, what restores it, and how to navigate a world explicitly designed to harvest it.

As one marketing executive put it: “Success in the attention economy requires more than just great tools, technology or tactics. It demands courage, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to serve your audience with value at every interaction” [20].

But perhaps most importantly, it demands that we stop seeing our attention as an infinite resource to be strip-mined and start seeing it as what it truly is: the foundation of consciousness itself.

The Path Forward

We stand at an inflection point. The attention economy is not going away—if anything, it’s accelerating. 

McKinsey estimates that generative AI could add $2.6 to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy, much of it through attention-capture and engagement optimization [21].

But we’re not powerless. Every moment of conscious attention is a vote for the kind of world we want to live in. Every time we choose deep focus over surface scrolling, meaningful connection over parasocial consumption, presence over performance, we’re reclaiming a piece of our consciousness from the attention merchants.

The question isn’t whether attention will remain currency—it will. The question is whether we’ll be the ones spending it, or the ones being spent.

Your grandmother’s attention wasn’t for sale because she understood something we’ve forgotten: attention isn’t just how we consume content. It’s how we construct meaning. It’s how we build relationships. It’s how we experience being alive.

In the attention economy, the most radical act might be the simplest: paying attention to what actually matters, and having the wisdom to know the difference.

The algorithm can’t optimize for that. Only you can.

See you in the next insight.

 

Comprehensive Medical Disclaimer: The insights, frameworks, and recommendations shared in this article are for educational and informational purposes only. They represent a synthesis of research, technology applications, and personal optimization strategies, not medical advice. Individual health needs vary significantly, and what works for one person may not be appropriate for another. Always consult with qualified healthcare professionals before making any significant changes to your lifestyle, nutrition, exercise routine, supplement regimen, or medical treatments. This content does not replace professional medical diagnosis, treatment, or care. If you have specific health concerns or conditions, seek guidance from licensed healthcare practitioners familiar with your individual circumstances.

References

The references below are organized by study type. Peer-reviewed research provides the primary evidence base, while systematic reviews synthesize findings.

Peer-Reviewed / Academic Sources

Government / Institutional Sources

Industry / Technology Sources

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