Mechanism
Engagement maximization is not an attack on the platform from outside — it is the platform’s own business model acting as the captured selection-tuner. The metric being optimized (time-in-medium → ad inventory → revenue) is a proxy for revenue dressed up as a proxy for user benefit; the gate-criteria tuned to it converge on identity, threat, and high-arousal content because that is what holds attention. The equilibrium is the institution’s normal operation, which is what makes it more stable than any externally captured institution — there is no adversary to defeat, only an arrangement to dismantle.
Connections
- Defined in: Political Economy of Attention
- Discussed in: Ch 11 — AI as a New Kind of Node, Ch 12 — Infrastructure for Integration, Ch 10 — Political Economy of Attention
- Pressure-tested by: Not Born Yesterday
- Enables: Out-competition of institutional carriers in attention markets
- Derives from: Medium shapes want, Selection
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