Human attention is a limited and valuable resource. Because people cannot simultaneously focus on two in-depth things and there are only so many waking hours in a day, there are only so many things that can capture our attention in that given period. Digital technology complicates how people budget their attention which can render users susceptible to a ceaseless barrage of advertising, notifications and small daily interruptions that add up.
The online attention economy is a system that commodifies human attention. In most business models, the user of the product or service is the direct source of revenue, but not in an attention economy business. Instead, these companies monetize consumer attention to generate profits. Their business models rely on engagement and advertising, often providing users with services free of monetary charge.
For example, social media and other digital platforms offer services to users without charge. But these seemingly free services, such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, have a hidden cost. Users pay for them with their attention, emotional investment, time and data. In this kind of business model, the user’s attention is the product. Attention is treated like a type of currency for companies to capture and sell to advertisers. By analyzing the data they collect, companies are better able to capture the attention of users by algorithmically tailoring the type of content they feed to individuals.
The result of this is digital platforms competing for the attention of users similar to how more traditional businesses compete for customers. Social media platforms are designed in a way to intentionally render them addictive. They employ many of the same techniques used in a casino, except in this instance, the goal is to keep you scrolling rather than on the casino floor. Many people use electronic devices regularly, even daily, whether for work, education or recreation. These devices have distractions built in, notifications and pop-ups that can draw your attention, potentially breaking user focus.
Resuming a task after an interruption is not as simple as it seems. We cannot just pick up where we left off. It takes time to refocus our attention to the same degree with which we had achieved before the point of interruption. The length of recovery time is dependent upon the complexity of the task, but can be anywhere from eight minutes for simpler tasks to  up to 25 minutes for more complex tasks. Distractions such as notifications can kill our focus and productivity. Our attention is redirected and our progress stops. Even brief interruptions, such as simple notifications, divert our attention and keep us on the screen.
While these attention-driven digital platforms have some value, it is important to keep in mind the forces that drive them are not prioritizing the best interests of users. The effect that companies competing for attention has on individuals is that they are increasingly and unconsciously incentivized to stay online. It is important to disconnect sometimes in order to prioritize productivity, maintain health and just give the human mind a break from constantly shifting focus between mental tasks.
