Back in the 196Os, economist and psychologist Herbert A. Simon famously observed that an abundance of information creates a scarcity of attention. That became the definition of the attention economy: a system where human attention is considered a limited and valuable commodity that businesses, advertisers and the media all compete to capture.
And if this was observed 6O years ago — before things like mobile phones, social media, streaming services, and push notifications — imagine how exacerbated it is now when we're exposed to more input across more platforms, in more formats, at a greater pace than ever.
Here are three ways the attention economy is evolving in this digital era.
THE SCIENCE OF DOOMSCROLLING
If you’ve ever felt annoyed with yourself for wasting hours on TikTok and Instagram, it’s not entirely down to procrastination or laziness. There’s genuine psychology behind endless scrolling.
Most social media platforms now use the infinite scroll, a design feature that continuously loads new content. Researchers have linked this function to the removal of natural stopping cues, and the formation of habitual scrolling behaviours. Your thumb is on autopilot, and your brain is being conditioned to seek out what's next rather than focus on what's in front of it.
For marketers, it’s quite the obstacle. Social media content needs to pause fingers in their tracks. That’s why a good hook is everything — a hook being the opening element of content, the first thing someone sees. Think the initial three seconds of your video, the visual element that draws the eye to your image, or the opening line of a caption that makes someone want to read on.
On a feed where you're not just competing with other brands, but with biological compulsions, a hook might be your only chance to win someone's attention. If the first impression flops, you’ve lost.
But here’s where context matters. A person doomscrolling to kill time has very different expectations from someone researching a $1OO,OOO home renovation. Yes, the first might churn through hundreds of videos in minutes. But the second might happily spend half an hour exploring articles or case studies.
So maybe the issue is not necessarily that we're incapable of concentrating. It's that we now live in a time where people consume content passively, not just out of genuine need or curiosity. As advertisers, we need to get good at turning that passive attention into real interest.
THE DEATH OF THE ATTENTION SPAN
Our scrolling addiction has become so ingrained that even sitting down to watch a movie or binge a show doesn't stop us from reaching for our phones. Netflix needs a side of Instagram.
This habit is known as “second screening”, and we do it for a number of reasons; but long story short, it’s basically a symptom of dwindling attention spans. Television asks us to follow a storyline at someone else's pace, so when a scene slows down, our phones offer instant gratification.
Studies also suggest that constantly switching between two screens can actually make us more bored. We reach for our phones in search of stimulation, only to potentially make the thing we were already watching feel less engaging. And so begins a vicious cycle.
Second screening is becoming so widespread that it's reportedly changing the way entertainment is produced. In a 2O24 investigation published by n+1, screenwriters who had worked with Netflix described being encouraged to write scripts that viewers who are distracted by their phones can still understand. We're talking about TV episodes and movies being written for people who aren't actually watching them. Think characters announcing their next move, explaining what's already happening on screen or repeating information multiple times.
Matt Damon also said something similar in a podcast interview, hinting that writers are spoon feeding audiences under the assumption they’re distracted. For casual viewers and second screeners, it might be an easier watch. But for those paying attention, the approach has been criticised as awkward, boring, and/or patronising. It begs the question: If writers forced to simplify scripts to hold people's attention, are they sacrificing anything in the process?
You might be wondering what this means for marketing. Well, if people can't give their undivided attention to a movie or TV show they've deliberately chosen to watch, what makes us think they'll give it to an ad they didn't ask to see? People are multitasking, so your content needs to work harder to cut through the noise. That means grabbing attention quickly, communicating your message clearly and giving people a reason to lock in, even if it is just for a few seconds.
THE LOST ART OF LOOKING FOR ANSWERS
Before the internet, finding information meant spending hours researching a topic. Now, we’re accustomed to the internet holding answers within seconds.
Our brains already have a natural preference for quick rewards and the path of least resistance. Over time, the convenience of the internet has played into this, shaping how we expect to find and consume information.
Think about the last time you searched for something on Google. How far down the page of results did you look at? We’d bet good money you never scrolled down to the bottom, and that you definitely didn’t bother going to page two (where websites go to die).
There’s research that suggests over 99% of organic traffic goes to page one listings, and the top three organic Google results account for more than half of all those organic clicks. And if you use AI, you might not even need to click through to a website at all.
It’s a cycle: as our appetite for instant information grows, digital platforms continue to evolve to satisfy it. Information gets faster to find and easier to digest, turning us into less attentive researchers.
For marketers, this draws a direct line between the attention economy and the SEO landscape. Securing those top search positions is more important than ever, but there's now another consideration: making sure your content can be found and referenced in AI Overviews, too.