The Price of Engagement: Ethics in the Attention Economy

In today’s digital economy, attention and personal interactions have become something of a scarcity. Social media platforms, streaming services, and mobile apps are not just tools for communication or entertainment. They’ve become businesses built around one core goal: keeping users engaged for as long as possible. While this may seem harmless on the surface, it raises serious ethical concerns when engagement is sustained through design choices that intentionally encourage addictive behaviour.

Addiction-driven business models rely on psychological mechanisms that exploit human behaviour. Features like infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and algorithmic personalization are not neutral design decisions. They are strategically implemented to reduce our ability to stop, increase the time spent consuming media, and maximize their advertising revenue. With this business model, user well-being is often forced into becoming inferior to company profit (Bhargava & Velasquez, 2020).

At the core of this issue is the way companies turn human attention into a product. Big corporations like Meta, TikTok, and Google generate their mass revenue through advertising, meaning their success depends on how long users stay active. Research has shown that social media platforms use behavioural reinforcement techniques similar to those found in gambling. Intermittent rewards, unpredictable content, and personalized feeds keep users returning repeatedly, even when the experience is no longer enjoyable (NHSJCS, 2025)

This model reflects what scholars describe as the “attention economy,” where human focus is treated as a resource (Giraldo-Luque et al., 2020). Instead of competing to provide the most meaningful or beneficial experience, companies compete to be the most habit-forming. Using psychological techniques of positive reinforcement, everyday users slowly become confined to this model, purely benefiting the businesses. It’s quite a simple domino effect: the longer an individual scrolls, the more data is collected, resulting in more targeted ads and, therefore, yielding greater profit.

The consequences are especially visible among young adults and students. Studies have linked excessive social media use to increased anxiety, sleep disruption, reduced academic focus, and lower self-esteem (Korte, 2020). Despite this, responsibility is often framed as an individual problem, placing the burden onto users to manage screen time while ignoring the real issue of company addictive systems that are pushed in our modern digital-era.

From a business ethics perspective, addiction-driven models resemble a modern extension of shareholder primacy. When maximizing engagement directly translates to higher profits, companies face less incentive to limit their harmful features. This creates a conflict between corporate growth and the well-being of consumers. As long as consumerism of media is prioritized above everything else, ethical concerns don’t rise as an issue.

Some critics compare this model to older industries like tobacco and gambling, where companies also made money from people’s dependence (Bhargava & Velasquez, 2020). In those cases, regulation only stepped in once the harm became impossible to ignore. Today, a similar conversation is happening around social media, with researchers and policymakers questioning whether tech companies should be held responsible for the mental and social effects of how their platforms are designed.

Importantly, criticizing addiction-driven business models does not mean rejecting technology or profit altogether. Instead, it encourages a conversation about what ethical and sustainable growth should actually look like. Some platforms are already testing alternatives, such as setting limits on feeds or focusing on more intentional use rather than endless engagement. These examples show that companies can still be profitable without relying on compulsive behaviour.

This issue is especially personal for students. Our attention is constantly being competed for and monetized, often at the same time we are trying to learn, build habits, and figure out who we are. These years play a major role in shaping our academic focus, mental health, and relationships, yet they unfold in an environment where distraction is not accidental but intentional for selfish reasons. Recognizing that these patterns are built into platform design helps shift the conversation away from individual blame and toward the systems that profit from keeping users engaged. Rather than viewing constant distraction as a personal failure, it becomes clear that it is the result of structures designed to capture and hold attention.

If businesses genuinely want to serve society, they need to seriously question whether profits built on psychological dependence can ever align with long-term human well-being. Addiction-driven business models may be effective for rapid growth and short-term engagement, but they come at a cost that extends beyond revenue. These models shape how people spend their time, how they focus, and how they interact with the world around them. As digital platforms become more embedded in everyday life, the responsibility corporations hold becomes harder to ignore. Addressing these concerns requires more than individual self-control; it calls for ethical reflection at the organizational level and a willingness to rethink how success is measured in the digital economy (Center for Humane Technology, n.d.).

References

Bhargava, V. R., & Velasquez, M. (2020). Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction. Business Ethics Quarterly, 31(3), 321–359. https://doi.org/10.1017/beq.2020.32

Center for Humane Technology. (n.d.). Center for Humane Technology. Www.humanetech.com. https://www.humanetech.com/

Giraldo-Luque, S., Aldana Afanador, P. N., & Fernández-Rovira, C. (2020). The Struggle for Human Attention: Between the Abuse of Social Media and Digital Wellbeing. Healthcare, 8(4), 497. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8040497

Korte, M. (2020). The impact of the digital revolution on human brain and behavior: where do we stand? Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 22(2), 101–111. National Library of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.2/mkorte

NHSJCS. (2025, February 27). The Psychological Effects of Social Media Dopamine Feedback Loops on Adolescent Mental Health. National High School Journal of Contemporary Scholarship. https://nhsjcs.com/2025/02/26/the-psychological-effects-of-social-media-dopamine-feedback-loops-on-adolescent-mental-health/