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What If You Got Paid For Your Attention?
Web3 promises us platform ownership, not just consumption. But will it be enough to break us out of the social dilemma?
The Social Dilemma exposed the mainstream to the flawed incentives in play at most consumer tech and media companies today.
It made clear the attention-hijacking nature of platforms such as Instagram and Facebook and click-baity media outlets. It made it clear that they weren’t the product — you were.
Your attention and data were being harvested to sell ads.
Viewers were stunned.
They had unwittingly become pawns in the game of making rich tech and media titans richer. Not only that, but people became ever more polarized, as media companies found a shortcut to hijacking our attention — appealing to emotions such as fear and anger by way of political issues.
People responded in a predictable manner, akin to the hungover partygoer promising themselves that they’ll “never drink again!” come Sunday morning.
They tried to limit their screen time, and take more ownership of their mental real estate, but ultimately reverted back to their old ways shortly thereafter as they quickly moved on to other Netflix productions such as Squid…
