Subprime Attention Crisis

Description

In Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process, he shows us how digital advertising?the beating heart of the internet?is at risk of collapsing, and that its potential demise bears an uncanny resemblance to the housing crisis of 2008.

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.