The Data History of the Attention Economy

Students investigate how media have competed for audience attention over time, weighing evidence from newspapers and radio against historian Tim Wu's "attention merchant" idea and Pew Research data on teen screen time, to evaluate how technological change reshaped the methods — and the goal — of capturing attention.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Subject Area U.S. History
Grade Band 11-12
Class Time Estimate 1
Standards Alignment
  • C3.D2.His.2.9-12
  • C3.D3.1.9-12
  • C3.D4.1.9-12
Prerequisites Comfort reading percentages and a simple survey chart; a general sense of what advertising is.
Version 1.0
Date Created July 9, 2026
Last Updated July 9, 2026