The attention economy and the Net
Goldhaber's 1997 First Monday paper argues that as people live more of their lives on networks, the economic rules that govern those spaces should be natural to them, and that the relevant rules are those of an attention economy. In the posted text he argues that information has value only when someone attends to it, that each transfer of information needs attention flowing the other way, and that attention stays scarce because each person can give only a limited amount. He also argues that material goods are reaching saturation in advanced economies. Used in the article at the level of those claims, attributed to Goldhaber.
Goldhaber's 1997 First Monday paper argues that as people live more of their lives on networks, the economic rules that govern those spaces should be natural to them, and that the relevant rules are those of an attention economy. In the posted text he argues that information has value only when someone attends to it, that each transfer of information needs attention flowing the other way, and that attention stays scarce because each person can give only a limited amount. He also argues that material goods are reaching saturation in advanced economies. Used in the article at the level of those claims, attributed to Goldhaber.
Written from the journal record (abstract and keywords) and the author's posted text of the 1997 talk, 2026-10-31.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Goldhaber, M. H. (1997). The attention economy and the Net. First Monday, 2(4). doi:10.5210/fm.v2i4.519 https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v2i4.519