Social Networks and the Exploitation of Digital Data From the Empire of Surveillance to the Economy of Attention

Abstract

This piece of work entitled "Social networks and the exploitation of digital data: From the empire of "surveillance to the economy of attention", addresses the digital environment and social media, which depend on various software and applications, and interaction devices that control human existence and communication. In addition to look the effects they have on the real world of individuals, especially with the emergence of forms of hidden domination, and a growing practice of administrative and voluntary slavery. To reach these researches aims, descriptive analytical approach was adapted, by invoking the studies and contributions of researchers and thinkers and their cognitive and critical conclusions, to elucidate the forms of exploitation of digital data and its use in the field of comprehensive global monitoring and attention economy. The main conclusion of the study is that there is digital management and exploitation of various comprehensive data of individuals who reveal their passions, emotions, consumer behaviors and intellectual activities, for the purpose of using them in the political, commercial and security fields. This constitutes a threat to the private life of humanity and individual liberties as well as the human condition.