The Network Visibility Problem

Social media is an attention economy where broadcasters are constantly competing for attention in their followers’ feeds. Broadcasters are likely to elicit greater attention from their followers if their posts remain visible at the top of their followers’ feeds for a longer period of time. However, this depends on the rate at which their followers receive information in their feeds, which in turn depends on the broadcasters they follow. Motivated by this observation and recent calls for fairness of exposure in social networks, in this article, we look at the task of recommending links from the perspective of visibility optimization. Given a set of candidate links provided by a link recommendation algorithm, our goal is to find a subset of those links that would provide the highest visibility to a set of broadcasters. To this end, we first show that this problem reduces to maximizing a nonsubmodular nondecreasing set function under matroid constraints. Then, we show that the set function satisfies a notion of approximate submodularity that allows the standard greedy algorithm to enjoy theoretical guarantees. Experiments on both synthetic and real data gathered from Twitter show that the greedy algorithm is able to consistently outperform several competitive baselines.

Technology and democracy: a paradox wrapped in a contradiction inside an irony

Democracy is in retreat around the globe. Many commentators have blamed the Internet for this development, whereas others have celebrated the Internet as a tool for liberation, with each opinion being buttressed by supporting evidence. We try to resolve this paradox by reviewing some of the pressure points that arise between human cognition and the online information architecture, and their fallout for the well-being of democracy. We focus on the role of the attention economy, which has monetised dwell time on platforms, and the role of algorithms that satisfy users’ presumed preferences. We further note the inherent asymmetry in power between platforms and users that arises from these pressure points, and we conclude by sketching out the principles of a new Internet with democratic credentials.

The Manufacture of Disconnection

<p>In Silicon Valley, the world’s most famous site of technological innovation, technology professionals are rejecting their own inventions and disconnecting from the internet. According to reports, technologists believe their designs and algorithms “hijack” user’s brains (Lewis 2017) and executives are sending their children to technology-free schools (Jenkin 2015). These technologists are not disillusioned by digital technology per se, but rather by the ideological and socio-economic system underpinning digital technology. This system is the ‘attention economy’ where media companies, advertisers and technology platforms compete for end user attention (Crogan and Kinsley 2012), which in turn incentivises technologists to create compulsive experiences for users to maximise time spent on device (Lanier 2018). In response to concerns about the attention economy, some technologists have become ‘disconnectionists’―opponents to the culture of constant connection they helped create (Jurgenson 2013). Not only are they disconnecting from their own inventions but, in true Silicon Valley style, are also inventing new technology-based ways to disconnect from the internet (“technologies of disconnection”). In other words, these disconnectionists are manufacturing disconnection. This research investigates the manufacture of disconnection as a mode of resistance to the attention economy. I contend that the manufacture of disconnection does not separate the user from the internet, but rather deploys technical and social practices to reorganise user relations to themselves and the internet in order to resist the attention economy. I critically assess the new types of user/technology relations that are produced by the manufacture of disconnection and discuss what the implications are for resisting the attention economy. To do this, I analyse five technologies of disconnection utilising the walkthrough method (Light, Burgess, and Duguay 2016) and data from semi-structured interviews from the disconnectionists behind the technology. The research questions ask: what are the new modes of relations that the manufacture of disconnection produces, and how do these relations implicate resistance to the attention economy and culture of connectivity? My thesis builds upon research from disconnection scholars who relate disconnecting from the internet to the work of Michel Foucault (Guyard and Kaun 2018; Karppi 2018; Karppi and Nieborg 2020; Portwood-Stacer 2012b). Foucault’s turn in the 1980s to ethics of the self (“late Foucault”) makes him an ideal theorist for a study on the manufacture of disconnection because of his consideration on how to resist the forces he believed were shaping society and individuals. Adopting a late Foucauldian perspective, this thesis identifies new relations of space and self that are produced by the manufacture of disconnection: a rehabilitative space; a sanctuary space; the fixable self, the intentional self and the available self. These spatial and self relations are digital architectures that enable inhabitants to resist dominant communicative norms or their own unconscious smartphone behaviours to transform their relationship to themselves, as well as seek refuge from certain surveillance activities that undergird the attention economy. Throughout my analysis I demonstrate that the manufacture of disconnection offers users an effective mode of lifestyle resistance to the attention economy but orients disconnection to be in service of productivity, wellbeing and gender norms that require users to subject themselves to additional self-governance methods. The thesis concludes that the manufacture of disconnection encourages new self-disciplinary modes of living for users in the attention economy without dismantling the structures of the attention economy.</p>

The Manufacture of Disconnection

<p>In Silicon Valley, the world’s most famous site of technological innovation, technology professionals are rejecting their own inventions and disconnecting from the internet. According to reports, technologists believe their designs and algorithms “hijack” user’s brains (Lewis 2017) and executives are sending their children to technology-free schools (Jenkin 2015). These technologists are not disillusioned by digital technology per se, but rather by the ideological and socio-economic system underpinning digital technology. This system is the ‘attention economy’ where media companies, advertisers and technology platforms compete for end user attention (Crogan and Kinsley 2012), which in turn incentivises technologists to create compulsive experiences for users to maximise time spent on device (Lanier 2018). In response to concerns about the attention economy, some technologists have become ‘disconnectionists’―opponents to the culture of constant connection they helped create (Jurgenson 2013). Not only are they disconnecting from their own inventions but, in true Silicon Valley style, are also inventing new technology-based ways to disconnect from the internet (“technologies of disconnection”). In other words, these disconnectionists are manufacturing disconnection. This research investigates the manufacture of disconnection as a mode of resistance to the attention economy. I contend that the manufacture of disconnection does not separate the user from the internet, but rather deploys technical and social practices to reorganise user relations to themselves and the internet in order to resist the attention economy. I critically assess the new types of user/technology relations that are produced by the manufacture of disconnection and discuss what the implications are for resisting the attention economy. To do this, I analyse five technologies of disconnection utilising the walkthrough method (Light, Burgess, and Duguay 2016) and data from semi-structured interviews from the disconnectionists behind the technology. The research questions ask: what are the new modes of relations that the manufacture of disconnection produces, and how do these relations implicate resistance to the attention economy and culture of connectivity? My thesis builds upon research from disconnection scholars who relate disconnecting from the internet to the work of Michel Foucault (Guyard and Kaun 2018; Karppi 2018; Karppi and Nieborg 2020; Portwood-Stacer 2012b). Foucault’s turn in the 1980s to ethics of the self (“late Foucault”) makes him an ideal theorist for a study on the manufacture of disconnection because of his consideration on how to resist the forces he believed were shaping society and individuals. Adopting a late Foucauldian perspective, this thesis identifies new relations of space and self that are produced by the manufacture of disconnection: a rehabilitative space; a sanctuary space; the fixable self, the intentional self and the available self. These spatial and self relations are digital architectures that enable inhabitants to resist dominant communicative norms or their own unconscious smartphone behaviours to transform their relationship to themselves, as well as seek refuge from certain surveillance activities that undergird the attention economy. Throughout my analysis I demonstrate that the manufacture of disconnection offers users an effective mode of lifestyle resistance to the attention economy but orients disconnection to be in service of productivity, wellbeing and gender norms that require users to subject themselves to additional self-governance methods. The thesis concludes that the manufacture of disconnection encourages new self-disciplinary modes of living for users in the attention economy without dismantling the structures of the attention economy.</p>

Between attention and mobilisation: Proletariat political activation in a mediated Aotearoa/New Zealand

<p>Stagnant pay, increased work hours and other increasingly precarious working conditions are restricting the capacity of the working class to meaningfully participate in political processes, worsening its economic disenfranchisement and further widening the inequality gap. At the same time, political struggles have expanded beyond the economic. “New Social Movements” have for the last half century transformed politics by expanding the definition of “political struggle” to include environmental, cultural and social concerns. Information and communication technologies have also advanced considerably, to the extent that information and its transmission are no longer scarce. Instead, in an “attention economy” that operates under capitalist logics, it is the human capacity to process information that has the most limited availability. Together, these developments have fundamentally changed the ways in which people participate in politics today, with no clear consensus regarding the overall merit of these emergent means of participation for the class-based social movements looking to reverse growing economic inequality. In this thesis, I examine the role of media in class-based social movements today. Specifically, I ask how organisers for these movements use media to facilitate political activation, or the process by which individuals disengaged from political processes come to participate in them. Using interviews with organisers from social movement organisations seeking to activate working-class audiences, I conduct a thematic analysis of those organisations’ media use and communications strategies. The findings reveal a complex imbrication of mediated and non-mediated activities designed to enable successful navigation of the attention economy. Through these findings, I propose new ways of connecting the individual to the collective in class-based movements through media.</p>

Between attention and mobilisation: Proletariat political activation in a mediated Aotearoa/New Zealand

<p>Stagnant pay, increased work hours and other increasingly precarious working conditions are restricting the capacity of the working class to meaningfully participate in political processes, worsening its economic disenfranchisement and further widening the inequality gap. At the same time, political struggles have expanded beyond the economic. “New Social Movements” have for the last half century transformed politics by expanding the definition of “political struggle” to include environmental, cultural and social concerns. Information and communication technologies have also advanced considerably, to the extent that information and its transmission are no longer scarce. Instead, in an “attention economy” that operates under capitalist logics, it is the human capacity to process information that has the most limited availability. Together, these developments have fundamentally changed the ways in which people participate in politics today, with no clear consensus regarding the overall merit of these emergent means of participation for the class-based social movements looking to reverse growing economic inequality. In this thesis, I examine the role of media in class-based social movements today. Specifically, I ask how organisers for these movements use media to facilitate political activation, or the process by which individuals disengaged from political processes come to participate in them. Using interviews with organisers from social movement organisations seeking to activate working-class audiences, I conduct a thematic analysis of those organisations’ media use and communications strategies. The findings reveal a complex imbrication of mediated and non-mediated activities designed to enable successful navigation of the attention economy. Through these findings, I propose new ways of connecting the individual to the collective in class-based movements through media.</p>

The Attention Economy and the Impact of Artificial Intelligence

The growing ubiquity of the Internet and the information overload created a new economy at the end of the twentieth century: the economy of attention. While difficult to size, we know that it exceeds proxies such as the global online advertising market which is now over $300 billion with a reach of 60% of the world population. A discussion of the attention economy naturally leads to the data economy and collecting data from large-scale interactions with consumers. We discuss the impact of AI in this setting, particularly of biased data, unfair algorithms, and a user-machine feedback loop tainted by digital manipulation and the cognitive biases of users. The impact includes loss of privacy, unfair digital markets, and many ethical implications that affect society as a whole. The goal is to outline that a new science for understanding, valuing, and responsibly navigating and benefiting from attention and data is much needed.

Introduction: Shifting Attention

In recent years, attention has become a matter of increasing public concern. New digital technologies have transformed human attention materially and discursively, reorganizing perceptual practices and inciting debates about them. The essays in this special issue emerged from a set of panels focused on attention at the 4S conference in New Orleans in 2019. They are all, in various ways, concerned with shifts among attention’s many meanings: between payment and care, instinct and agency, or vulnerability and power. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS) sensibilities, these pieces examine how scientific and technical actors are invested in theorizing and capturing attention, while simultaneously engendering new forms of care, resistance, and critique. At a moment where the attention economy appears to be in transformative crisis, this collection maps a set of incipient directions that ask us to pay attention to not only attention itself but also to the many sociotechnical settings where experts and publics are shifting attention’s meaning and value.

Attention, Music, Dance: Embodying the “Cinema of Attractions”

In this essay I take up the question of whether the “cinema of attractions,” as identified and analyzed by film scholars Tom Gunning and André Gaudreault, might be a useful tool for critical analysis not only of early silent film, its exhibitionist aesthetics, and approach to spectatorship, but of theatrical dance from the period. Certainly, as for its general historical currency, the “cinema of attractions” is thought to encode the culture of modernity from which it arose: the visual spectacle, sensory fascination, bodily engagement, mechanical rhythm, violent juxtapositions, and new experiences of time and space available within the modern urban environment. Moreover, that cinema relied in no small part on dance itself: as a performing art, dance was central to the “attractions” industry, prime raw material starring The Body in Motion, a favorite fascination of contemporary art and popular entertainment. My aim is to push the analogy further, suggesting how cinema and theatrical dance might cue a similar mode of attention: that is, despite the former’s reliance on the camera, its reproductive aesthetic and industrial mechanicity, and the latter’s live theatrical aspect. Indeed, in the latter, I argue, music can be analogized to the camera itself, helping determine and sustain a particular attention economy, while pointing to itself—just as filmed objects stare at the camera—as artifice or contrivance.