Insights ¦ The Second Wave of Attention Economics. Attention as a Universal Symbolic Currency on Social Media and beyond

Key Take Aways

1. Attention is increasingly viewed as a symbolic currency, pertinent across social, political, and economic domains.
2. A dual-stream model of attention distinguishes between calcified (stored) and flow (active) attention, emphasising how attention can be accumulated and traded like a resource.
3. Attention may, in the future, replace money as the primary societal medium of exchange, with implications for organisational value and reputation.
4. Social media acts as a technological infrastructure facilitating the externalisation and calcification of attention, creating self-reinforcing feedback loops.
5. Attention functions within a symbolic system similar to other societal currencies, such as influence and reputation, enabling exchanges across different subsystems.
6. Social media platforms leverage interface designs and algorithms to amplify attention-rich individuals, intensifying competition for visibility and influence.
7. The collection and visible measurement of attention—likes, followers, views—are transforming attention into a tangible, tradable asset.
8. The increasing scarcity of attention and its monetisation have significant psychological impacts, exacerbating inequalities and affecting mental health.
9. Future attention economies could materialise through innovative storage mechanisms like digital wallets or biometric profiles, raising critical infrastructure questions.
10. Interactions around live streaming demonstrate how real-time engagement fosters performative labour, blurring work and leisure and enabling immediate monetisation of attention.
11. A potential societal movement toward attention-based currencies might lead to new forms of social stratification, with attention wealth becoming inherited and amplifying inequalities.
12. For financial services, understanding attention as a societal resource offers opportunities to innovate in areas such as reputation management, social credit mechanisms, and investment in attention-driven assets.

Key Statistics

• Viewership on Western live streaming platforms exceeds 7-8 billion hours per quarter, highlighting exponential growth in real-time attention engagement.
• The digital attention economy influences scholarly metrics such as the h-index, which now competes with traditional measures of academic authority.
• Large social media followings increase the likelihood of engagement with policymakers and advertisers; economies of scale in attention are evident in celebrity and influencer success.

Key Discussion Points

• Attention functions as a symbolic currency capable of circulating within societal subsystems such as economy, politics, and reputation systems.
• Social media platforms externalise attention as calcified resources (followers, likes), which can be translated into other currencies like money and influence.
• The competition for attention has expanded exponentially with greater digital connectivity, creating a ‘fight for visibility’ and leading to attention as a scarce resource.
• Attention can be exchanged for social capital, influence, reputation, and monetary gain—blurring traditional boundaries between work, leisure, and social validation.
• Platforms facilitate microtransactions—likes, donations, subscriptions—that monetise flow attention and reinforce feedback loops of engagement.
• Attention loss impacts individual wellbeing, with poverty of attention linked to social comparison, mental health challenges, and inequality.
• Emerging infrastructure questions focus on how attention will be stored, traded, and regulated—potentially through digital wallets or biometric identifiers.
• The horizon of a full attention economy raises concerns over surveillance, social stratification, and ethical implications of attention manipulation.
• Real-world societal impacts include the transformation of reputation into social and financial capital, with inheritance-like effects magnifying inequalities.
• Live streaming exemplifies how immediacy and performative labour convert attention into income and social standing, propelling new forms of labour.
• Attention as a medium of exchange may precipitate systemic shifts, possibly leading to crises or upheavals in current economic paradigms.
• Analysing the societal and organisational implications of widespread attention-based economies remains a vital research frontier for informed decision-making.

Document Description

This article explores the evolution of attention as a societal and economic resource, positioning it as a potential universal symbolic currency. It highlights how social media technologies have created mechanisms for attracting, accumulating, and exchanging attention, transforming it into a traded asset akin to money. The paper discerns between flow and calcified attention, proposing a systemic model of how attention functions within modern society. It discusses the implications of embedding attention within societal subsystems, impacts on individual psychology, and future infrastructural and ethical considerations. Ultimately, the article addresses key questions for future research, emphasising the need for responsible design and regulation in a society increasingly driven by attention economics.