You’re selling your attention… for free!
In the economy, every resource has value: oil has its price, gold by the gram has its price, real estate has its price, and capital has its price as well. Moreover, in the digital world, time and attention have also become economic resources with a price. Every time we open a social media application, such as Instagram or Snapchat, or others, we believe we are using free services, while in reality, we pay for them with the currency of “time.” Time in this era has a cost; many economists consider time an economic asset, not merely hours that pass. Therefore, for example, salaries are calculated based on hours in many countries, or by the day. Consequently, every hour spent on social media is exactly equivalent to the value of our time in work, study, or other activities.
This is clearly evident when we see that companies have shifted from competing to sell products, as they did in the past, to competing to capture our time and attention. The time we freely give to social media platforms and to influencers or accounts we follow is converted by these accounts into a product they sell for money to companies and institutions in the form of advertisements. The more time and attention an account captures from its followers, the higher the advertising rates for that account. This fuels fierce competition on social media: every second you spend in front of the screen gives the platform an additional opportunity to display an ad, collect data, analyze your interests, and then sell this knowledge to advertisers. Thus, the term “attention economy” has emerged, where social media platforms have transformed from technology companies into businesses that trade in human attention, converting it into money through promotional advertisements.
From this, we can also point to another economic term: “opportunity cost.” The value lies not only in what we lose in terms of time, but in what we could have gained if we had invested that time differently. Instead of giving our time and selling our attention for free to social platforms—which in turn sell it for substantial profits to advertisers—we could have done otherwise. For instance, one hour a day could mean reading dozens of books in a year, learning a new language, acquiring a skill, launching a small business, or even exercising, all of which would positively impact your health and productivity. However, when that hour is consumed by fleeting content, the loss is not measured in minutes, but in opportunities that never came to be.
Because time is precious and followers’ attention has become a commodity that generates continuous profits, digital platforms themselves are aware of the value of users’ time. They employ data scientists, behavioral experts, and specialists to keep users on the app for as long as possible. Every additional minute means a new ad, greater economic income, and higher profits. Their source of revenue is the time we freely give them. In today’s digital world, we face an entire market based on the buying and selling of attention, where humans, their time, and their attention become products traded in this market. Therefore, it is essential to redraw our daily planning map and change how we calculate our assets. Perhaps we need to review our “time bill” daily or monthly to understand where we spend it and how much profit it generates for us, just as we review our bank accounts. The most dangerous aspect of today’s economy is that it does not steal your money; rather, it captures your time and sells it in the digital market. The secrets of the essence of life
