The Not So Strange Case of the Attention Economy and Behavioral Advertising

Tech addiction, and its harmful consequences for our health and well-being, have become a growing source of concern. Common wisdom has already emphasized the relationship between this disorder and the gold-rush to drive up engagement, spurred by the emergence of the attention economy. This article takes a broader, and perhaps more radical, view: by tracing the origins of the attention economy back to the technologies that underpins big data analytics and the so-called sensor society, behavioral