The Attention Economy and Young People

Economies are defined by scarcity, not abundance (scarcity = value). Today, information is abundant, attention is scarce.

Description: The scale of the world’s largest companies, the wealth of its richest people, and the power of governments are all rooted in the extraction, monetization, and custody of attention. The most recent example: American Eagle added $200 million in market cap overnight, not by increasing sales or lowering costs, but by hacking the attention economy with a Sydney Sweeney ad calibrated for the culture war’s choose-your-own-narrative ecosystem. The stock popped another 20% after President Trump praised the ad on his social media platform. Sydney Sweeney doesn’t have great jeans, or genes, but great memes. 

Few people understand attention economy dynamics better than Kyla Scanlon. She captured, monetized, and continues to hold my attention on TikTok. (Where else?) She’s a frequent guest on Prof G Markets — listen here for Kyla’s American Eagle take — and the author of In This Economy? How Money & Markets Really Work. Kyla coined the term “vibecession” to explain the disconnect between the strong fundamentals and gloomy outlook of the Biden economy. This week, I asked her to write about how the attention economy affects young people.