Platforms designed to addict users are killing journalism and harming children

Failure to dismantle the attention economy means traditional journalism will continue its death spiral.

July 31, 2025

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Reading Time: 2 mins read

OTTAWA, ON (July 31, 2025):

Canada’s approach to saving news media is “burying the lede” by focusing on newsroom subsidies while ignoring the fundamental threat posed by the social media induced “attention economy,” argues a new paper from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

In Dismantling the Attention Economy, author Andrew MacDougall reveals how platforms like Meta, X, TikTok, and YouTube have created an information ecosystem hostile to quality journalism by monetizing human attention through deliberately addictive features.

The scale of destruction is staggering: 450 Canadian media outlets have closed since 2008, throwing around one-third of journalists out of work.

But the damage extends far beyond newsrooms. “Social media is driving cognitive overload, addiction, and worsening mental health – especially among children and young women,” the author states, with rising depression rates and constant digital distraction becoming the norm.

The volume of content makes traditional regulation impossible. Over a billion stories are shared on Facebook daily, while YouTube uploads 500 hours of video every minute. “The attention economy is virtually unpoliceable at these volumes,” MacDougall writes.

Instead of policing outputs, Canada must target the business models and product features driving this flood of content. The paper recommends:

● A Royal Commission to investigate the attention economy’s full scope and harms

● Engagement-based taxation that penalizes platforms for addictive features like infinite scroll and autoplay

● Banning smartphones in schools and social media for under-16s, following Australia’s lead

● Holding platforms legally responsible as publishers when they algorithmically boost content

“The mass harvesting of human attention for the profit of a few wealthy platforms is socially corrosive. It must end,” MacDougall concludes.

The paper warns that without dismantling the attention economy, traditional journalism – democracy’s crucial fourth pillar – will continue its death spiral, leaving citizens vulnerable to misinformation and reducing government accountability.

To learn more, read the full paper here: