Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang
Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang
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Subprime Attention Crisis
Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet

Author: Tim Hwang

Narrator: Matt Godfrey

Unabridged: 3 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/16/2021


Synopsis

From FSGO x Logic: a revealing examination of digital advertising and the internet's precarious foundation

In Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process, he shows us how digital advertising--the beating heart of the internet--is at risk of collapsing, and that its potential demise bears an uncanny resemblance to the housing crisis of 2008. From the unreliability of advertising numbers and the unregulated automation of advertising bidding wars, to the simple fact that online ads mostly fail to work, Hwang demonstrates that while consumers' attention has never been more prized, the true value of that attention itself--much like subprime mortgages--is wildly misrepresented. And if online advertising goes belly-up, the internet--and its free services--will suddenly be accessible only to those who can afford it. Deeply researched, convincing, and alarming, s will change the way you look at the internet, and its precarious future.

FSG Originals × Logic dissects the way technology functions in everyday lives. The titans of Silicon Valley, for all their utopian imaginings, never really had our best interests at heart: recent threats to democracy, truth, privacy, and safety, as a result of tech's reckless pursuit of progress, have shown as much. We present an alternate story, one that delights in capturing technology in all its contradictions and innovation, across borders and socioeconomic divisions, from history through the future, beyond platitudes and PR hype, and past doom and gloom. Our collaboration features four brief but provocative forays into the tech industry's many worlds, and aspires to incite fresh conversations about technology focused on nuanced and accessible explorations of the emerging tools that reorganize and redefine life today.

About The Author

Tim Hwang is a writer and researcher. He is the former director of the Harvard-MIT Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative, and previously served as the global public policy lead for artificial intelligence and machine learning at Google. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. He lives in Los Angeles.


Reviews

Goodreads review by jasmine on March 10, 2021

When I first heard Tim Hwang speak about Subprime Attention Crisis at Logic Book Festival, he began by saying that the problem with the discourse about Big Tech is that both its champions and its critics give it too much credit. That is, the marketers overhype what the technology can do, and the res......more

Goodreads review by David on July 13, 2020

The internet has morphed through numerous stages to get to the current advertising model. Tim Hwang says that global model is so corrupt and corrupted it looks like the stock markets just before the Financial Crisis and recession of 2008. “The whole edifice of online advertising…is bunk,” he says. I......more

Goodreads review by James on December 25, 2023

really interesting book......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on October 30, 2020

I have an insider perspective on many of the things this book discusses. I run the data science department for a digital publisher. Among other things, I'm in charge of evaluating programmatic networks that we might want to use. I've come to the conclusion that, while there are good actors out there......more

Goodreads review by Tanja on March 11, 2023

I thought this book would be about how social media destroys focus and attention. Actually, it’s about how weak the advertising system of surveillance capitalism is and how it could risk destroying the internet. Not entirely convinced and frankly, not sure if I care.......more