Free Attention Available

Everyone thrives for the attention of some kind. Attention is the artery for the euphoria of feeling satisfied and wanted. Social media has become an outlet for personal and professional gratification through attention. Attention through social media platforms can have a positive and negative effect on an individual or society. Positive because social media can allow people to express their talents or skills, leading to getting discovered. An unfavorable outcome is that some people rely on social media for psychological gratification. Social media becomes these people’s lives; they believe that they are irreverent or not relevant without social media. Some strategies used to gain attention are fake media. This information is elaborated and targeted to the user and with the user’s intention to give it attention. Another strategy is the visual effects. Social media platforms pay designers to design platforms to grab the user’s attention, whether with images, color, location, and even psychological affecting images. And finally, another strategy used is the appearance of being else “catfish.” People will pretend to be someone else for attention for psychological reasons, personal reasons, and for fun.

The engagement of social media is described as taking on the form of an epidemic. Once the media is posted, everyone has the chance to get infected; this news travels all around until it disappears. Ling et al. (2015), Maintaining engagement is social media is keeping the audience engaged or drawn to the subject. The structure of social media is keeping the users engaged. Without engagement, there are no social media. The purpose is to get the attention of as many users as possible. There are many strategies used to grab the attention of the users. For example, an online boutique will design their social media page to get their followers’ attention by keeping them continuously informed of any sales or new arrivals. Having this media posted multiple times a day. Another strategy is a fan-based page. This social media page that has a particular following. Usually, members of people that have the same liking to a subject. Finally, another strategy to maintain engagement in social media is allowing feedback from the viewers. This opens the platform to suggestions that will keep followers engaged. Social media platforms are evolving every day, updating how media is published and maintaining the engagement legally worldwide.