The Ethics and Cognitive Science of the Attention Economy

atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca

Philosophical critiques of the attention economy overwhelmingly portray technology users as victims – their attention "hijacked," their willpower "depleted," their autonomy eliminated by irresistible design. I argue that such accounts, while intuitively compelling, fundamentally misunderstand how digital platforms influence human behavior. Drawing on contemporary cognitive science, I develop an empirically grounded framework showing that the attention economy's real harm lies not in controlling users but in shaping what they value. I challenge the dominant "control argument" through three interconnected claims. First, attention is not a depletable resource that can be captured, but rather a capacity for value-guided selection shaped by learning history, goals, and environment. Second, platforms influence behavior not by overriding agency but through "value collapse" – the process whereby rich human values like friendship and accomplishment become reduced to platform metrics like followers and streaks. Third, users maintain the ability to regulate their responses to digital stimuli, though this capacity can be compromised when learned values make harmful choices genuinely appealing. The framework I develop synthesizes value-based decision-making models with philosophical work on attention and agency. When your phone buzzes, you don't lose control – you make a rapid decision based on learned value representations. The problem is that platforms systematically shape these representations through variable rewards, social feedback, and algorithmic optimization. This creates a feedback loop: shaped values guide attention, which reinforces those same values, progressively narrowing what seems worth attending to. This analysis transforms how we should respond to digital harms. Rather than treating technology use as addiction requiring abstinence, or depleted self-control requiring restriction, we should focus on cultivating skilled attention – the capacity to recognize and reshape the values guiding our choices. The issue isn't whether we can stop scrolling (we can) but whether we've learned to value scrolling over richer pursuits. By grounding philosophical analysis in cognitive science rather than folk psychology, this dissertation provides tools for understanding not just current platforms but emerging technologies like generative AI. The question isn't whether we have agency in digital environments but how to exercise it wisely when powerful systems are designed to shape our deepest evaluative commitments.