It just doesn’t make logical sense. The most “successful” social media accounts are always the shittiest. You’d think it would completely devalue what a “view” is worth, but I guess eyeballs are eyeballs. Then the whole click farm situation where you just buy engagement. A secondary market that just reminds you of the Ouroboro.
I think I’m missing something because somehow half of tech is funded by it.
You’re not missing anything. You got it right. The entire funding model for tech is destined for a financial collapse that will make 2008 look like child’s play.
https://www.fsgoriginals.com/books/subprime-attention-crisis
From the unreliability of advertising numbers and the unregulated automation of advertising bidding wars, to the simple fact that online ads mostly fail to work, Hwang demonstrates that while consumers’ attention has never been more prized, the true value of that attention itself—much like subprime mortgages—is wildly misrepresented. And if online advertising goes belly-up, the internet—and its free services—will suddenly be accessible only to those who can afford it.
It’s great for pushing enraging content though. I feel like the content itself has gravely affected the collective psyche, and so have influencer endorsements (which companies pay big bucks for), even if the explicit ads have not.
It destroys real relationships, replaces them with para social ones, then exploits them for money. It’s not just attention that is monetized. It’s human connection.
Also for porn: onlyfans is successful because you can pay for personalized actions and one can build something appearing like a relationship with the porn star. Before one would just passively watch them.
Influencer endorsements can actually be even less effective than traditional ads, despite their outsized budgets.
The industry has also been expressing concerns about the validity of social media ‘vanity’ measures, documenting that engagement for most social media platforms and for collaborations with influencers can be very low (Influencer Marketing, 2020)
