LESSON
How Your Attention Shapes You
Who decides what you pay attention to online, and how does it shape you?
Your feed is built by algorithms designed to hold your attention. This lesson looks at how that works, the way platforms learn what keeps you watching and quietly steer you toward more of it, and asks a question that students don't usually stop to consider: Does what you pay attention to shape who you become? Then it turns that question into a choice: Now that you can see how the system works, how do you decide for yourself what gets your attention?
Objectives
- Explain how platforms track their behavior to steer what they pay attention to
- Recognize how the mere exposure effect can make content they didn't choose start to feel like who they are
- Decide what they want shaping their attention, and map it out for themselves
Vocabulary
Attention Economy ·
Algorithmic Identity ·
Mere Exposure Effect
Attention Economy – a system where platforms and creators make money by capturing and holding your attention
Algorithmic Identity – a digital profile of you that platforms build from your online behavior
Mere Exposure Effect – the tendency to prefer and identify with things you are exposed to repeatedly, even without realizing it
Topics
Time
20 mins.
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