DPHU1007 Chap.8 Affordances and the Attention Economy
Affordances and the Attention Economy
Week 8 studies what platforms make possible. The reading is the SAGE handbook chapter on the affordances of social media platforms. Bucher and Helmond locate low-level affordances in the materiality of a medium: specific features, buttons, screens and platforms.
High-level affordances are the dynamics and conditions those features enable, and the lecture draws on danah boyd's account of networked publics, shaped by persistence, replicability, scalability and searchability.
The course quotations add two cautions.
People's expectations and perceptions of a technology may shape behaviour as much as its material properties, and mediating technologies are never neutral: they enlarge some kinds of action while restricting others.
Andersen's line about searching, archiving, ordering and filtering links affordances to the algorithms studied in Week 10.
The chapter models a paragraph on an invented online pile-on and connects affordances to the attention economy, in which engagement is valuable to platform owners whatever its effect on public debate.
Where this shows up in assessment. The Week 10 essay workshop suggests building a body paragraph around a single high-level affordance, such as searchability or connectivity, applied to one feature of the case study.
Affordances work well alongside framing or ideology, because they explain how a message spreads while the other concept explains what it means.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Affordance: what a technology makes possible or easy for its users.
- 02
Low-level affordances: material features such as buttons, screens and interface tools.
- 03
High-level affordances: persistence, replicability, scalability and searchability as conditions of networked life.
- 04
Perception: expectations about a technology shape behaviour alongside its design.
- 05
Non-neutral mediation: technologies enlarge some actions and restrict others.
- 06
Attention economy: platforms compete for scarce attention and profit from engagement.
- 07
Algorithms and action: searching, archiving, ordering and filtering shape how people communicate.
Worked example · free
Affordances behind a viral fundraising post
- +1Low-level: a share button and a link that opens the donation page in one tap.
- +1High-level, replicability: the post can be copied unchanged across many accounts and groups.
- +1High-level, scalability: shares move the appeal from a small network to a very large audience, which reaches local news and adds further visibility.
Key terms
- Affordance
- What a technology makes possible or easy for the people who use it.
- Low-level affordance
- A material feature of a medium, such as a button, screen or interface tool.
- Persistence
- The capacity of online content to remain available long after it is posted.
- Searchability
- The capacity of content and people to be found through search.
- Attention economy
- A system in which platforms compete to capture and sell scarce human attention.
Affordances and the Attention Economy FAQ
What is the difference between low-level and high-level affordances?
Low-level affordances are material features such as buttons and screens. High-level affordances are the wider conditions they enable, such as persistence or scalability, which shape how people communicate over time.
Which high-level affordances does the course name?
The lecture draws on boyd's work on networked publics and names persistence, replicability, scalability and searchability as central affordances that shape how social network sites work as public spaces.
Why do user expectations matter?
Bucher and Helmond argue that what people believe about a technology can shape behaviour as much as its material properties. A user who thinks a post is private acts differently even if it is public.
How do affordances connect to the attention economy?
Features that keep people scrolling and reacting generate engagement, and engagement is valuable to platform owners. This helps explain why designs that amplify outrage persist even when they harm public debate.
Are affordances good or bad for democracy?
Neither by themselves. Hansen and Flyverbom argue that mediating technologies enlarge some actions and restrict others, so the same affordance can help activists organise and help misinformation spread. Analyse the specific case.
What is the week's reading on affordances?
Students read the chapter on the affordances of social media platforms in the SAGE Handbook of Social Media edited by Burgess, Marwick and Poell, and take notes with the course template before the workshop.
Assessment move
List four platforms you use and, for each, write one low-level feature and the high-level affordance it supports most. Compare them: which platform depends most on persistence, and which on scalability? Read the SAGE chapter for the definitions, then copy the Bucher and Helmond and Hansen and Flyverbom quotations into your concept sheet.
Practise a paragraph on a recent viral event in which every claim moves from feature to affordance to behaviour to who profits. Ask friends how they think their feeds work and note any beliefs that change their behaviour, which is useful evidence for the perception point.
