To create a movement that transforms how content creators can value and respect their audience's attention, treating it as a finite, precious resource rather than a bottomless commodity to be exploited.
The internet promised to connect us in unprecedented ways. To a certain extent, early social platforms delivered on this promise - Facebook helped us stay in touch with loved ones across the globe (remember being ‘poked’?), YouTube democratised video sharing, and countless creators found their voices and audiences online.
Then came the ‘attention economy’…
As platforms faced pressure to monetise, they made a pivotal choice: their business would be selling human attention to advertisers. Success meant maximising "engagement time" - keeping us scrolling, watching, and clicking for as long as possible. Next came sophisticated algorithms to promote whatever content kept us hooked, regardless of its value or impact.
Creators, eager to reach audiences, were pressured into creating for these algorithms instead of humans. Art became "content," and meaningful connection gave way to vanity metrics. We've reached a point where Netflix publicly declares that their biggest competitor is sleep - a fundamental human need. This is the equivalent of McDonald's saying their biggest competitor is people being full up.
Is this the future we want for ourselves and our children?
We treated fossil fuels as an infinite resource to be exploited without consideration of long-term costs. Likewise, the attention economy treats human attention as an unlimited commodity to be extracted and monetised. And just as we now understand the environmental impact of fossil fuel consumption, we must recognise that attention exploitation carries hidden costs for us all.
This system extracts a heavy toll from both creators and audiences: