Over the last 6 weeks, I have been writing about The Battle for Our Minds: how technology is affecting our thoughts, our perception, and even our ability to think for ourselves. And the younger generations are being more impacted than any of us.
I just received a relevant newsletter from Prog G. (Scott Galloway), penned by Kyla Scanlon, author of In This Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work. I highly recommend reading her original article, as I won’t do it justice. But that won’t stop me from trying.
The attention economy is the digital battlefield where capturing people’s attention directly leads to influence and money. In today’s world, storytelling has the power to generate immense wealth and authority. Case in point: on January 17th of this year, Donald Trump created $60 billion in wealth by weaving a tale called Trumpcoin (it’s currently only worth about $2 billion). He leveraged his reach and power to create wealth out of thin air.
Our youth, growing up between the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic, have never experienced a stretch of economic security. Combined with the ever-present media narratives of climate change, social media manipulation, and the erosion of the concept of “truth,” it’s no wonder they seem “unmotivated” to those of us who grew up in very different times.
When I was young, I learned that if I worked hard, applied creativity, and persevered, I could create value in the world. This led to my compulsive (if slightly unhealthy) addiction to startups (of which I think I am on my 17th). Power and wealth didn’t seem elusive or concentrated. It was there for the taking (at least, in retrospect, for a young white man, even one who grew up on food stamps with a single mom).
Today, hard work is celebrated online as “hustle culture.” It’s more important to be seen as hardworking because it’s what others see that creates the value. Job titles, financial stability, or, as my Mom used to say, “benefits,” pale compared to social media presence in how others perceive you and how much you earn. Followers = Opportunity.
This lesson became painfully obvious to me when I was writing a book last year. Publishers won’t even look at you without 100K followers. It used to be you wrote a book and that gave you fame (if not fortune). Now you have to create your fame to get one published.
Kyla says four interconnected elements have reshaped our reality.
These four elements create a digital treadmill that can feel inescapable. The only escape lies in awareness and recognition.
In the past, economic value was primarily determined by the scarcity of resources. Goods and services that were limited in quantity held greater value due to their exclusivity. However, with the advent of the digital era, where information is limitless, scarcity has been all but eliminated, except in one area: our attention.
Today’s economy is marked by attention scarcity, where we are bombarded with a constant stream of content vying for our limited focus. This shift poses challenges for young people as they navigate a landscape where capturing and retaining attention is paramount for success.
The implications of this extend beyond monetary value alone; it shapes how individuals perceive worth, engage with work, and establish their identities in a world where attention is a prized commodity.
The biggest players today are attention monopolies. The largest companies by market capitalization owe much of their valuation to their ability to capture and command human attention at scale. This is a fundamental shift in how economic power is wielded.
Governments get it, too. Political influence increasingly hinges on mastering attention flows—winning hearts and minds through digital channels outweighs traditional policy debates. Trump created his own social network; it’s that important. Influence campaigns, disinformation, and real-time engagement metrics have become tools of statecraft.
This dynamic distills attention into a scarce resource that fuels market cap growth and political leverage. Young people growing up now are navigating an ecosystem where control over attention equates to control over wealth and influence—a high-stakes game with few guarantees beyond the ability to capture fleeting focus.
So when 57% of Gen Z and 41% of adults say they want to be “influencers,” it could be that they just recognize that influence is the key to power and wealth.
This presents a unique landscape for young people to navigate, one that requires adaptability and resilience. Unfortunately, the older generations can’t teach these skills because we didn’t grow up needing them. So we scratch our heads and call them lazy, or weak, or entitled, when they’re just confused, frustrated, and angry.
And this isn’t just an American thing. I recently landed in Kenya on July 7th, Saba Saba. It’s a day of remembrance, and now protest, for democracy. The most recent protests are being led by Gen Z (which is a household term in Nairobi). They were promised social justice, equality, and opportunity. Instead, they’ve gotten economic hardship, corruption, and police brutality. Their symbol is a pointed finger, symbolizing “one term” for the current President.
The Trumpcoin launch highlights what some call the Attention Singularity—a point where concentration of attention creates outsized wealth accumulation for those who can command it. It’s a new form of capital, where social media virality, meme culture, and influencer dynamics intertwine to create speculative bubbles that are detached from traditional economic fundamentals.
Young people trying to build wealth must grapple with this shifting landscape: traditional investment wisdom no longer guarantees returns when the currency is viral attention, not cash flow or physical assets. Successful strategies blend storytelling prowess with digital savvy, often operating at the edge of hype cycles and cultural trends.
“Owning property was once the ticket to wealth; now, owning your attention—or someone else’s—is part of that game.”
The attention economy rewards narrative savvy over tenure or credentials. Betting on digital trends can generate rapid wealth and influence. In this world where attention is the new gold, managing a “career” means constantly shifting between chasing fleeting opportunities and holding onto what one has managed to accumulate for security. It’s no wonder anxiety is exploding.
“Do I bet what I’ve scraped together to grow my influence, or hold on so I can buy toilet paper in the next pandemic?”
Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the power to change the existing platforms. And neither our current government nor the existing financial and power structure in Silicon Valley are incentivized to do so. However, we can all increase our mindfulness, become more digitally literate, and become more intentional about where we direct our attention.
I recently installed an app on my iPhone called Blank Spaces Launcher. It’s a minimalistic overlay that makes it harder to be distracted by apps, notifications, and all the shiny objects on our phones. It’s dramatically reduced my interruptions and screen time. It acts as a momentary barrier, giving you time to reconsider whether what you were going to do is really what you want. It’s cut way down on my screen time, which means fewer opportunities for other people to shape my reality. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
