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6 articles explore this thread.
Uses the history of the penny press, radio, television, and early internet to show that attention markets follow a recurring pattern, and that the current feed economy is the latest version of an old bargain.
Surveys public-health precedents to argue that attention-extraction platforms can be treated as design problems, not only user-responsibility problems.
Traces how Jio's 2016 launch collapsed data prices, expanded access, and reshaped Indian internet behavior toward entertainment and short-form video.
Uses the Green Revolution as an analogy for solving one urgent problem while creating slower, structural costs that only become visible later.
Uses historical technology transitions to show that access alone does not determine benefit; the distribution of gains depends on institutions, literacy, and norms.
Uses cross-country historical comparisons to show that missing a technology transition has persistent economic and geopolitical consequences.