attention economics.
Inside the aestheticization of our isolation
The new status symbol on TikTok is not a packed social calendar. It is an aggressively empty apartment and a complete lack of friends. Loneliness influencers have turned modern urban isolation into an aspirational aesthetic, and it says something uncomfortable about where consumer desire is heading.
Read the full thing →The feed has robbed us of intuition (here's how to get it back)
The social media feed has intercepted the trial-and-error loop that used to build human intuition. Constant, conflicting expert advice has trained us to distrust our own instincts, and the result is cognitive paralysis. The brands that win next will be the ones that hand control back to the consumer.
attention economicsThe algorithmic void of ultra-fast fashion
Shein isn't a fashion brand. It's an algorithm that turns clothing into content and outsources the damage to underpaid workers and overflowing landfills. This piece breaks down how ultra-fast fashion weaponised social media, why the slow fashion counter-narrative collapsed, and what that says about consumer culture.
attention economicsThe Ordinary just set up a stall selling £305 avocados (and it's some of the best anti-marketing we've seen)
The Ordinary built a fake luxury supermarket and sold an avocado for £305. It's a brilliant piece of anti-marketing that exposes the deceptive language beauty brands use to inflate their prices. And it permanently changes how shoppers see every luxury skincare counter they'll ever stand in front of.
most read in this topic.
Inside the aestheticization of our isolation
The new status symbol on TikTok is not a packed social calendar. It is an aggressively empty apartment and a complete lack of friends. Loneliness influencers have turned modern urban isolation into an aspirational aesthetic, and it says something uncomfortable about where consumer desire is heading.
The feed has robbed us of intuition (here's how to get it back)
The social media feed has intercepted the trial-and-error loop that used to build human intuition. Constant, conflicting expert advice has trained us to distrust our own instincts, and the result is cognitive paralysis. The brands that win next will be the ones that hand control back to the consumer.
The algorithmic void of ultra-fast fashion
Shein isn't a fashion brand. It's an algorithm that turns clothing into content and outsources the damage to underpaid workers and overflowing landfills. This piece breaks down how ultra-fast fashion weaponised social media, why the slow fashion counter-narrative collapsed, and what that says about consumer culture.
The Ordinary just set up a stall selling £305 avocados (and it's some of the best anti-marketing we've seen)
The Ordinary built a fake luxury supermarket and sold an avocado for £305. It's a brilliant piece of anti-marketing that exposes the deceptive language beauty brands use to inflate their prices. And it permanently changes how shoppers see every luxury skincare counter they'll ever stand in front of.
The internet is officially a psychological thriller
The internet has gone from dodgy spam folders to AI voice clones, deepfakes, and algorithms designed to keep you scrolling until 3am. Both the technology and the creators using it are manufacturing reality for profit, leaving us burnt out and cynical. Media literacy is no longer a nice-to-have. It is active digital self-defence.
Why does modern marketing always platform dangerous men?
The music industry doesn't see abusers. It sees assets. From Chris Brown to D4vd, our platforms and algorithms keep monetising dangerous men while victims are erased from the story.
The browser is the new gatekeeper and we're not ready
Browsers aren't just tools anymore. They're becoming AI agents that summarise, filter and decide what users see before they ever land on your site. If your brand isn't built to survive that filter, you're already behind.
What happens when art becomes just another asset class?
The algorithm has quietly changed the deal for artists. To have a career now, you don't just make good work. You perform the making of it, on camera, in real time, for a feed that refreshes every second.
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