ATTENTION PLEASE: You Are Being Sold

Tech companies are making money without selling you anything. If they aren't selling you anything and they are making money, they must be selling someone something. How else are they earning cash?

They are selling you. More specifically, they are selling your attention.

You've probably heard the phrase time is money. Your time and attention are a valuable commodity. You go to work and get paid, sometimes hourly or by salary. Mainly, money is closely related to time.

If you are using a free online service, consider that your actions and attention may be sold for profit. Recently, this has become more widely known. People don't really care that much. I frequently hear "they already have all my data." To be fair, it's true. They already have a profile on you.

Time as a commodity is not as easy to quantify as a physical product like toilet paper or a car. What makes it quantifiable is the massive amounts of data collected from your usage of these platforms. The data profiles companies build aren't what make them successful (most of the time). They are successful because they use this data to get better at targeting you. With your data, they know how to keep you online and serve the right content to make you spend your attention. They get the products seen and prove to advertisers that their product was seen/purchased through data collection.

Are you okay with your attention being cultivated and farmed for profit? It feels gross because your attention belongs to you. Ethically, I believe you have rights to your own self, physically and mentally. Imagine, if instead of attention being stolen, you were compensated. Maybe this would make people feel more ownership over their attention.

The issue is that it is not visible, and giving your attention to these platforms is addictive by design. Data being collected is hidden in lengthy privacy policies that no one reads. It isn’t obvious how much of your attention you are spending. The only option given to users is to not use the platform, which is impossible in some cases.

They have all your data, yes. That doesn't mean companies should continue denying users a choice over their mental belongings. Users should have a choice and understand clearly what part of them is being sold. Unfortunately, there really is not much we can do in certain cases.

So... what's the point?

I want you to understand and be aware of this. Social media platforms and free software provided by large tech companies are engineered for addiction. The more attention they have from you on a frequent basis, the more money they make at the expense of your time.

Use these platforms if you have to, but remember your attention belongs to you and is finite.

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