Attention and Alienation Book Review: How the Internet’s Attention Economy Extracts Value

What if the internet’s most valuable currency isn’t your data, or even your money—but your attention? And what if the bargain we’ve all been making isn’t neutral at all? If you’ve ever closed an app and felt oddly drained, or watched a movement trend only to get twisted by disinformation, you’ll recognize the world Aarushi Bhandari maps in Attention and Alienation: The International Political Economy of Information and Communication Technologies.

This is not another “phones are bad” rant. It’s a clear-eyed examination of the attention economy as a system of extraction that shapes power, profit, and mental health across borders. Bhandari blends quantitative analysis with personal narrative—from growing up online among Kathmandu’s elite during the Nepali Civil War—to show how digital technologies redistribute value upward and outward, often away from the people and communities who create it.

In this review, I’ll unpack the book’s key ideas, why they matter, and what we can do about them. I’ll also place it in conversation with other landmark works on tech, like Tim Wu’s The Attention Merchants and Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. By the end, you’ll have a crisp sense of whether this belongs on your reading list (spoiler: it does), and how to apply its insights to your own digital life and work.

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The Big Idea: We Pay Attention, We Receive Alienation

The heart of Bhandari’s thesis is stark: the global spread of the internet has turned human attention into a commodity—one that digital platforms extract, package, and sell. That extraction isn’t only technical or economic. It’s emotional and social. It shapes how we see ourselves, how we spend our time, and how we relate to others.

Here’s the trade-off the book argues we’re stuck in: – Our attention is monetized through ads, data, and engagement metrics. – Our labor—posts, videos, memes, comments, and even our emotional responses—feeds the system for free. – In return, we get frictionless connectivity but rising alienation, anxiety, and polarization.

You may already sense this at a personal level. The book widens the lens: this is also a global political economy, with stark inequalities baked in—from the structures of platform monopolies to the pipeline of data and capital flowing from the Global South to the Global North.

And yes, the mental health link is real and well-documented, even if causation is complex. The World Health Organization has flagged a growing burden of mental health disorders worldwide, intensified by digital stressors and social isolation for many groups across the world. It’s a layered picture, but the distress is measurable and consequential WHO.

What the Book Covers (In Plain Language)

Bhandari moves across three levels of analysis:

International policy and development: Who controls digital infrastructure and rules? Who benefits from cross-border data flows?
Social movements and public life: How do activists mobilize online—and how do platform incentives fuel backlash or disinformation?
Everyday users: How do algorithms shape our moods, identities, and sense of belonging?

Her method mixes numbers, history, and memoir. The result is rigorous but readable. You get a structural critique, not just a stream of hot takes about social media.

Key Ideas That Stuck With Me

The Attention Economy Is an Extraction Machine

Attention isn’t just precious—it’s scarce. As Herbert Simon put it decades ago, in an information-rich world, attention becomes the bottleneck. Platforms turn that bottleneck into a business model. If they can capture more of your time and emotional energy, they can sell more ads and influence more behavior. That’s the incentive behind endless scrolls, autoplay, and algorithmic feeds.

The “optimize for engagement” playbook rewards outrage, novelty, and tribal identity.
Recommendation engines tilt toward content that gets clicks, even if it harms well-being.
The same incentive shapes features and governance decisions, from what gets recommended to what gets removed.

If you’re curious about the logic behind this, Tim Wu’s work on the attention marketplace offers a crisp history of how media firms prioritize “capturing eyes” above all else The Attention Merchants. For a deeper dive on the ad-driven data machine built on top of that, see Zuboff’s analysis of surveillance capitalism The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.

Here’s why that matters: the more our digital spaces are tuned to maximize engagement, the less they are tuned to maximize truth, care, or democratic health. That’s not a moral failing; it’s a business choice with political consequences.

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Unequal Exchange: Who Wins, Who Pays

Bhandari extends the attention critique to the global level. The internet was sold as an equalizer. But the real exchanges are unequal:

Global power asymmetries: A handful of firms—mostly headquartered in the U.S. and China—dominate search, social, cloud, and ads. Their incentives set the rules worldwide.
Data colonialism: Data generated by users and workers in poorer countries is extracted and monetized elsewhere. The value chain concentrates profits in the Global North while externalizing harms like e-waste, low-wage moderation, and precarious gig work. Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias call this pattern “data colonialism.”
Development myths: “Connectivity” boosts GDP on paper but can deepen dependency if countries don’t control data, infrastructure, or digital policy. This dynamic is widely discussed in global reports on digital development UNCTAD Digital Economy Report and in access/affordability data from the ITU ITU Facts and Figures.

It isn’t that the internet doesn’t bring benefits. It does. But without governance and bargaining power, the platform economy works like a siphon. The exchange rate for attention and data is stacked.

Our “Free” Labor Isn’t Free

Much of the internet is built on unpaid, affective labor—posts, reviews, music, moderation, translation, memes. Tiziana Terranova called this “free labor” more than twenty years ago. It’s still the core engine of platform value Terranova on free labor.

Creators shoulder algorithmic risk, shifting rules, and burnout.
Communities do the cultural work that platforms monetize.
Even safety is partly outsourced, relying on underpaid moderators in countries with fewer protections.

Bhandari’s point isn’t to cynically dismiss online creativity. It’s to name the asymmetry: we supply time, emotion, and culture; platforms extract value. The result is alienation—feeling used by a system we can’t meaningfully shape.

Alienation 2.0: The Mental Health Cost

Alienation is a classic concept in political economy, but Bhandari gives it a digital update. It’s not just about labor anymore. It’s about identity, attention, and community.

Algorithmic feeds fragment our attention. Constant partial focus adds stress.
Online identity performance invites comparison and shame spirals.
Outrage cycles and misinformation erode trust and relational safety.

None of this is uniform or deterministic. Yet the public health concerns are real, especially for young people and marginalized groups. For a broad overview of tech-related harms and what platforms could change, see the Center for Humane Technology’s research and resources Center for Humane Technology.

Social Movements, And the Backlash Loop

Bhandari is careful with nuance. Yes, digital tools help movements organize and testify. But the same engagement incentives that amplify social justice messages can supercharge backlash, harassment, and disinformation. A well-known MIT analysis found that false information spreads faster than truth on Twitter, precisely because it’s more novel and emotive MIT False News Study.

The takeaway: movements can’t rely on platform virality alone. They need durable networks, independent infrastructure, and strategies that don’t depend on opaque algorithms.

Policy Isn’t Boring—It’s Power

Another throughline in the book is policy. Who sets the rules for speech, data, competition, labor, and safety? Laws and standards shape design incentives.

Europe’s evolving framework (the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act) is one attempt to shift platform incentives EU Digital Services Act.
Global statistics highlight widening access, affordability, and skills gaps UNESCO on the digital divide.
Risk frameworks for AI and algorithms are emerging, which could ripple into product design NIST AI Risk Management Framework.

Policy isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s the terrain where extraction can be constrained and value shared.

What Makes Bhandari’s Approach Stand Out

Lived global perspective: Her account of growing up “chronically online” in Kathmandu during conflict grounds the theory. It’s rare to see the Global South framed not as a case study but as a lens.
Multi-level analysis: The book moves from the macro (trade, policy, development) to the micro (moods, scrolling habits) without losing the thread.
Quant meets narrative: The numbers matter. So do stories. The blend keeps the book engaging and credible.
A politicized view of design: Instead of treating algorithms as neutral “features,” the book reads them as political choices with distributional effects.

In short, this is political economy with heart. It respects readers’ intelligence without getting lost in jargon.

Strengths (And Why They Matter)

Clear argument: It connects attention, labor, and inequality in a way that clicks.
Fresh vantage point: Most attention economy books center the U.S. Bhandari looks outward and shows how global inequalities reinforce each other.
Ethical urgency: The account of alienation isn’t abstract. It’s relatable and real.
Constructive: The final chapters look toward systems that could prioritize collective well-being. That balance of critique and possibility is rare.

Why that matters: It’s easy to feel nihilistic about the internet. A book that names the harms and still argues for better design and policy keeps us in the game.

Where I Wanted More

More design playbooks: The book points to “systems that prioritize well-being.” I wanted more concrete design patterns and governance models (e.g., algorithmic choice, friction by default, participatory audits).
Business model alternatives: There’s room to dive deeper into public options, platform cooperativism, and data trusts—mechanisms already being prototyped Platform Cooperativism.
Implementation under constraint: How can low- and middle-income countries build bargaining power against platform giants? Concrete procurement and standards strategies would help.

None of these are deal-breakers. They’re invitations for a sequel—or for readers to pick up the baton.

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Practical Takeaways You Can Use Today

You don’t need to control global policy to reclaim some power. Start small, then scale.

For individuals – Audit your attention: Track the apps that drain you vs. those that nourish you. Adjust your home screen accordingly. – Add friction: Turn off autoplay, hide like counts where possible, batch notifications, and set default grayscale at night. – Make it social, not just solo: Replace hours of passive feeds with active connection—calls, walks, small groups. – Protect sleep and morning focus: Phone outside the bedroom. Morning hour offline.

For teams and product leaders – Redefine success: Add well-being and trust metrics alongside DAU/MAU. What would a “healthy session” look like? – Build safety in: Default to humane engagement—rate limits, content quality signals, and easier reporting/remediation. – Offer real controls: Let users tune recommendation settings and see why they’re seeing content. – Audit for equity: Measure who bears the costs (creators, moderators, marginalized users). Fix the gap.

For policymakers and civil society – Data rights with teeth: Transparent ad libraries, cross-platform interoperability, and data minimization by default. – Competition and choice: Tackle gatekeeper dynamics; support open standards and shared infrastructure. – Labor protections: Pay and protect the workers who keep platforms safe, including moderators and gig workers. – Public interest tech: Fund independent research, civic networks, and local digital commons.

If you’re looking for policy templates, explore the EU’s DSA/DMA framework and risk-based approaches to AI and algorithms EU Digital Services Act, NIST AI RMF.

How It Compares to Other Must-Reads

The Attention Merchants (Tim Wu): A history of how media industries monetize attention. Bhandari builds on this and shifts the frame to global political economy and inequality.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (Shoshana Zuboff): A sweeping theory of how companies turn behavioral data into profit. Bhandari echoes this critique, but centers cross-border dynamics and the lived experience of alienation.
Platform Capitalism (Nick Srnicek): A typology of platform business models. Bhandari brings in the psychological and geopolitical layers.

If you’ve read these, Bhandari will feel like the missing piece that braids them together with a Global South perspective.

Memorable Ideas to Carry Forward

“Engagement” is not a neutral metric. It privileges certain emotions and behaviors.
There is no “view from nowhere” in tech. Design encodes values and power.
Connectivity without control deepens dependency.
Free labor is still labor. Creators and moderators deserve protections and pay.
Healthy digital life is possible—but it requires aligned incentives and thoughtful governance.

Who Should Read This Book

Product managers, designers, and marketers who set engagement KPIs.
Policy makers and regulators shaping digital rules.
Activists and organizers building movements that depend on platforms.
Creators and community managers navigating algorithmic risk.
Anyone who feels “chronically online” and wants language for that feeling.

If you’ve ever wondered why the internet feels both indispensable and exhausting, this book will help you name the system and spot leverage points for change.

The Bottom Line

Attention and Alienation is a bold, incisive map of our digital economy—and a reminder that design and policy are choices, not fate. It shows how algorithms and business models extract value from our attention and creativity, and how those costs ripple across countries and communities. Most importantly, it points to ways we can reclaim agency, from personal habits to public infrastructure.

Clear takeaway: Treat your attention as a commons to be stewarded, not a resource to be strip-mined. Push your products, policies, and communities toward metrics and models that value well-being over raw engagement. Start where you are. Scale what works.

If you’d like more book reviews like this—plus practical strategies for humane, high-performing digital work—subscribe and keep exploring with us.

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FAQ: Attention Economy, Alienation, and This Book

Q: What is the “attention economy,” in simple terms? A: It’s the market where companies compete to capture and sell your attention. The more time and emotion you spend on a platform, the more money it makes through ads and data. For history and context, see Tim Wu’s work on attention markets The Attention Merchants.

Q: Does social media cause mental health problems? A: It’s complex. Social media can help with connection and support, but design choices that maximize engagement can harm well-being for some users. The World Health Organization has documented rising mental health burdens worldwide, with digital stressors among many contributing factors WHO.

Q: How is this book different from The Age of Surveillance Capitalism? A: Zuboff analyzes how companies turn behavior into data and profit. Bhandari builds on that but centers the international political economy: who controls infrastructure, how value flows across borders, and how digital systems reproduce inequality and alienation.

Q: What does “unequal exchange” mean in the digital context? A: It refers to the imbalance where users and workers provide attention, data, and cultural labor, while platforms capture disproportionate value and power. At the global level, this can look like data and profits flowing out of poorer countries to richer ones—sometimes called “data colonialism” UNCTAD Digital Economy Report.

Q: Is there any hope for a healthier internet? A: Yes. Change the incentives, change the outcomes. Better design patterns, stronger data rights, competition rules, labor protections, and public-interest infrastructure can all shift the system. See models emerging in policy (e.g., the EU’s DSA) and in product (e.g., user control over recommendations) EU Digital Services Act.

Q: What can I do right now to protect my attention? A: Start with: notifications off by default, no-phone bedroom, batch-checking social apps, and adding friction (disabling autoplay, removing infinite scroll where possible). Replace passive scroll with active connection. If you build products, add “healthy session” metrics to your dashboard.

Q: How do online movements fit into this? A: Platforms can amplify mobilization—but also backlash, harassment, and misinformation. The architecture of engagement favors novelty and outrage, which can undermine trust and coordination. Durable movements build outside platform virality with strong networks, training, and independent infrastructure. For evidence on virality dynamics, see the MIT study on false news diffusion MIT False News Study.

Q: Where can I learn more about the digital divide and global inequalities online? A: Explore UNESCO’s work on the digital divide UNESCO and the ITU’s access and affordability data ITU Facts and Figures. For labor and platform alternatives, look into platform cooperativism Platform Cooperativism.

Q: Who should read Attention and Alienation? A: Anyone building or regulating digital systems, creators and community leaders navigating algorithmic risks, and readers who want a global, humane lens on the attention economy.

Note: External references included to help you go deeper: – WHO: Mental Health Overview – UNESCO: Digital Divide – ITU: Facts and Figures (Access/Affordability) – UNCTAD: Digital Economy Report – MIT: False News Spreads Faster – EU: Digital Services Act – NIST: AI Risk Management Framework – The Attention Merchants (Tim Wu) – The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (Shoshana Zuboff) – Terranova: Free Labor – Platform Cooperativism

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Attention and Alienation Book Review: How the Internet’s Attention Economy Extracts Value—and What We Can Reclaim

The Big Idea: We Pay Attention, We Receive Alienation

What the Book Covers (In Plain Language)

Key Ideas That Stuck With Me