ATTENTION ECONOMY BY ESMA KARAGÖZ 190422103

In recent years, social media has ceased to be a communication tool and has become a branding, advertising and market area. The attention economy sells products by directing people to things that may interest them as much as possible. That's why they work with microcelebrities that attract attention in the community. We users also participate in immaterial labor, consciously or unknowingly. For example; there is a discussion under a post on You Tube, and if we participate in this discussion, even if we write a negative comment, we support it. We can participate in this marketing and advertising process even just by reacting. We mediate its growth and reach more people without any fee. We also contribute to the attention economy by following the influencers, subscribing to their channels or clicking the like button, because because the more people the influencer reaches, the more advertising it means. These reactions mean a contribution to product promotion. When we retweet an influencer's product we like on Twitter, we are helping it reach more people. We help promote their product, but we get nothing in return. This is how we participate in the influencer commence. Sometimes we share an internet celebrities’ product just because we love it and we support it. However in this situation, only online celebrities and attention economy wins. Another example, microcelebrities are doing a survey on social media, it seems innocent and we agree. However, the influencer earns money from its sponsor for each comment, like and participant. There are marketing products hidden in the survey questions, they look very natural, but they are actually very carefully packaged there. Immaterial labor is hidden, the attention economy is criticized for gaining unfair advantage over followers. Some even call it exploitation.