The Winner of the Attention Economy

If you’ve ever scrolled on TikTok -- you know, the never-ending supply of 15-second to 3-minute videos -- you know that it is very addictive. Scroll long enough and you might find yourself on a video of a concerned user calling out the harmful effects of the platform on our brains and attention spans. “Put your phone down! Read a book! Keep your attention span!” Some pleas from neuroscientists or anthropologists border on conspiracy theories: “THEY want to destroy your attention. Don’t let THEM.” Meanwhile, time spent on the app keep shooting skyward.

The Attention Economy
TikTok’s owner Bytedance is not the first to try and capture our attention in order to capture ad spend. The concept is called the Attention Economy, and it has existed since radio shows mentioned toothpaste, and newspapers featured coupons for shoe polish. Technology has just gotten more sophisticated. Now, rather than billboards or magazines, we have apps that deliver well-researched dopamine hits that have us physically craving (and mindlessly clicking on) our social media icons.

TikTok Features
TikTok allows users to record short videos, add subtitles or voiceovers, and create custom backgrounds. All innovations and additions to this social media platform rely on those platforms that came before it (namely, Snapchat and Instagram). But at the same time, the copying goes the other way, with Instagram’s Reels feature serving as a direct copycat of TikTok, a snide but successful method of bringing more eyes and attention to their platform by allowing users to upload their TikTok content to Instagram.

Influencer Marketing
“TikTok famous” now means sponsorship deals in the thousands and millions, which means the influencer marketing industry overall is on the rise. Mavrck acts as a go-between for TikTokers with sizable followings and enterprise clients wanting to reach these audiences. Afterparty is a platform for content creators to engage with their audience through Web3 (don’t know what that word means? Read this).