Subprime Attention Crisis

Are Big Tech and digital advertising headed for a catastrophic collapse? Tim Hwang investigates the precarious future of the internet in this thought-provoking exposé.
In Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang reveals how digital advertising—the beating heart of the internet—is at risk of collapsing, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the housing crisis of 2008. Hwang demonstrates that while consumers' attention has never been more prized, the true value of that attention is wildly misrepresented, much like subprime mortgages.
From the unreliability of advertising numbers and unregulated automation of bidding wars, to the simple fact that online ads mostly fail to work, Hwang argues that if digital 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, Subprime Attention Crisis will change the way you look at the internet and its precarious future. This provocative collaboration between FSG Originals and Logic magazine delights in capturing technology in all its contradictions and innovation, aspiring to incite fresh conversations about the emerging tools that reorganize and redefine life today.