The Attention Bubble

An interesting observation (and language warning) from a New Zealander about texting and game. In short, with new venues of communications such as texting and Facebook, young women are interpreting that as "increased attention."

I was made aware of this at quite an early age. I'd say I was about 18 or 19 when I noticed if I approach a girl with a very innocent, non-romantic intention (say to find out where the book store was) her reaction (body language, eyes, posture, etc) indicated to me she thought I was hitting on her. It dawned on me that ANY attention I would pay to girls (whether it had sexual/romantic aims or not) would be viewed as sexual/romantic attention. This made it impossible to have a "normal" interaction with girls because they would always assume you were hitting on them, when frankly, you just wanted to know where the can was.

There are, of course, economic consequences to the young ladies of today misinterpreting "texting" or "likes" as attention instead of just mere socializing or neutral interaction. An "attention bubble" or an overvaluation of ones market value. And just as easy credit monetary policies of countries throughout the world led to a housing bubble, these new media (texting, facebook, etc.) are doing the same thing, flooding the market with "attention" and driving young ladies' ego's sky high.

The bubble, though, forms in the misreading of the "market pricing mechanism" or "market price signals." When "Joey" texts "Sally" and says;

"Hey, what time was our professor starting the lab?"

What Joey is really saying is

"Hey, what time was our professor starting the lab?"

Sally, however, misreads this price signal to read;

"OMG! Joey is SOOOOOO in love with me! Just like all the other guys who keep texting me. I am so hot! Joey is such a coward though, acting like he cares about what time the lab starts. He's obviously just using that as a ploy to talk to me."

This overvaluation of oneself can be represented quite simply by a classical supply and demand chart from Economics 101.

The "supply" of "Sallys" is represented by the green line and marked with an S.
The ACTUAL DEMAND for Sally is denoted with the blue line and marked with an "AD" (actual demand).

But, because of the new forms of media and communications, and the fact Sally takes the absolute value of ANY communication as proof positive a guy is hitting on her, she overestimates demand. This exaggerated demand is marked by the red line, labeled "TD" (text demand).

The results are what any good economists knows. The REAL price people are willing to "pay" for Sally is represented at P1. But because Sally is arrogant enough to think she's all that and a bag of chips (some 1990's jargon there for you kids), she perceives her market value at P2, much higher than the real price. This disparity leads to many suitable suitors pursuing Sally, but Sally turning them down because she has been led to believe she can do better.

In short, this chart is merely the graphical representation of "stuckupedness" teen and college-age men face in the courting battlefield in the western world. But don't worry, that TD line does inevitably shift to the left.

I, out of intellectual curiosity, would love to see any manosphere economists attempt to explain why.