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The Attention Economy Is Starting to Crack

What Happens When Attention Starts to Backfire

This week was a bit of a reality check. For years, platforms have been optimizing for more – more time, more engagement, more control over what people see. And it worked.

Now you can feel the downside catching up. Between lawsuits, user complaints, and brands trying to distance themselves from anything that feels too artificial, the model isn’t breaking, but it’s definitely being questioned.

1

The Lawsuits Are Coming for the Algorithm

A U.S. jury ruled that Meta and YouTube knowingly built products that are addictive, and that it actually harmed a young user’s mental health.

What’s getting attention here is how the case was argued.

The focus went straight at the product design, things like infinite scroll, recommendation loops, and the way the platforms keep people locked in.

A lot of what drives performance right now comes from those same systems. The longer people stay, the more content gets pushed, the more opportunities brands have to show up.

The problem is, those same mechanics are now shown to be harmful for youth.

And once that narrative sticks, it reshapes how everything working with and around the platforms is perceived.

You can already see where this is heading. Governments are stepping in, age restrictions are being tested (Good, Australia is already ahead of the curve), and platforms are going to have to prove they’re not just optimizing for time spent anymore.

If that happens, a lot of current “best practices” start to look a lot less stable.

And if you’re tired of constantly chasing trends and clickbait content, this might actually be a good thing, because that’s not the kind of strategy worth building on anyway.

2

Aerie Is Betting “Real” Still Wins

Aerie is sticking with what they’ve been doing for years – no retouching, no perfect bodies, no heavy edits.

Now they’re taking it a step further and drawing a hard line against AI-generated people, using Pamela Anderson to make that point.

And she’s a smart choice. She’s already been leaning into a more natural, no-makeup look, so it doesn’t feel forced. It matches the message perfectly.

The campaign is simple. It starts with AI-generated models and constant prompting to make them feel natural, then shifts into real people.

And it works. Because they’ve been consistent with this idea for a while, so it feels intentional.

The timing helps too. Everything right now looks polished and generated, so “real” stands out more by default.

But taking a stance like this raises the bar.

If you’re positioning yourself as the alternative, the work actually has to feel different. Otherwise you may be pulling a Colgate.

For now, they’re on the right side of it. But this only works as long as “real” still feels rare.

3

TikTok Is Trying to Calm Everyone Down . While Selling More Ads

TikTok showed up to NewFronts with one main goal: prove it’s stable.

After all the ban drama and ownership questions, they’re now pitching a “new chapter” under U.S. control, more secure, more independent, and ready for long-term growth.

You can feel how intentional that messaging is. This is TikTok trying to reset the narrative with advertisers.

At the same time, they rolled out a wave of new ad formats—takeovers the second you open the app, sequential storytelling, tighter creator integrations. Everything geared toward bigger, more immersive campaigns.

So on one side, they’re asking for trust.

On the other, they’re pushing even harder on attention.

And that tension is starting to show.

Because while TikTok is telling brands the platform is stronger than ever, users have been saying something different.

There’s been a noticeable wave of complaints about the algorithm feeling off. Less relevant, less sharp, not hitting the same way it used to.

And whether that’s actually caused by the U.S. transition or not almost doesn’t matter.

If people feel the experience slipping, they don’t stick around long enough for any of these new ad formats to work.

TikTok is betting it can evolve the platform without losing what made it addictive in the first place.

That’s a harder balance than it sounds.

4

Instagram Is Quietly Giving Us More Control

Instagram has added the ability to edit carousel posts after they’re live, letting you reorder and delete slides.

It sounds simple, but it fixes one of the more frustrating parts of posting. Before, if something didn’t land, you were stuck with it, or had to delete and republish. Now you can adjust the order, swap in a stronger first slide, or clean things up based on how the post is performing.

Coming right after last week’s Reels update (tap-to-pause, which should’ve already existed), it’s clear Instagram is catching up on core usability.

These aren’t big product moves, but they matter. The easier it is to pause and engage with content, and now refine it after posting, the more people will treat content as something to improve over time, not just publish and leave.

It also brings some focus back to the grid. With the push toward Reels and chasing TikTok, visuals started to matter less. This shift makes the overall look and feel of posts relevant again.

What This Week Really Shows

There’s a gap starting to open up.

Platforms are still built to maximize attention, and that hasn’t changed. But the way people feel about that model is shifting quickly, with users questioning it, regulators stepping in, and even brands starting to distance themselves from anything that feels too engineered.

The platforms aren’t slowing down. If anything, they’re pushing harder, but the more they do, the more obvious the trade-offs become.

At some point, that tension forces a change.