Social media. The new attention extraction economy.

Extraction has fueled the two largest expansions in capitalism. Steal, iron, and coal drove the industrial revolution. Now, the tech revolution harvests attention. Just as metals, stones, and minerals were converted into technology and multiplied, so did technology gave access to million eyeballs and is expanding its reach globally. The attention economy build on targeted advertising as a business model made engagement a game where platforms who make their users consume the most content win. 

Just like earth’s resources, attention is finite. We all have the same 24 hours per day. When views and likes are the metrics by which social media platforms function, it is our engagement which is a living juice. Without it, the site, like a non-reciprocal conversation, would shrivel and die.

So how does social media ensure that we engage? They learn from the best-the gamers. At first, they are more overt-think Facebook’s FarmVille. Then, more sly-asking friends to join the game in exchange for rewards. Lastly, platforms utilize the built social capital to create new features that keep users coming back in groups such as events and the marketplace. The follow feature caused a massive spike in user numbers. Now people didn’t have to commit to a friendship which implied liking a person but they could merely follow whoever they found interesting. On follower-based Instagram and YouTube, thousands of people contribute content in exchange for internet fame, and maybe some cash. 

Engagement with this content was sold to advertisers as a promise that their campaigns would be seen. To solidify this promise, algorithms were created, targeting advertising to each individual user based on their browsing history. While the suggestions were awkward at first, often recommending the same product a user just purchased, they grew more sophisticated as more data was mined across platforms. Harvard Business Review confirms that targeted ads based on browsing history make people more likely to buy the product because they see it as an extension of themselves. Participants who received an ad for an upscale watch were more likely to think of themselves as sophisticated and bought the watch. Similarly, the ones who received a targeted ad for a “green” product saw themselves as environmentally-friendly and also bought the product. Thus, targeted ads do not illicit beliefs in the person but confirm the beliefs they have within themselves. This shift in thinking from advertising being targeted at you to being catered to the best version of you completely shifted the mindset towards ads. While 84% of millennials, the largest demographic on social media, do not like traditional marketing, 58% of millennials do not mind seeing ads if they support their favorite digital personality.

While Minds is unique in that it does not have an external advertising model, it uses Boosts as a substitution. When we all advertise our content to each other, there is no need to seek advertisers elsewhere.