Whose Attention Is It Anyway?

Surviving and Thriving as a Creator Amidst Algorithms, Incentives, and Identity

Sep 14, 2025

In the modern digital bazaar, the most valuable currency isn’t money but ATTENTION!!. Every swipe, like, click, and scroll feeds a machine that knows you better than you know yourself. This machine, powered by AI and fine-tuned by massive data sets, doesn't just respond to your desires, it shapes them.

In this landscape, where content floods our feeds faster than we can process it, a question emerges:

Who is really in control?

Defining the Architecture of Influence

The attention economy is no longer run by humans carefully choosing what to watch or read. These systems, especially recommendation algorithms are no longer optimizing for truth, meaning, or even engagement, but for time-on-platform and dopamine hits. Algorithms and AI shapes not just what you see, but also how you behave.

From the For You tab on X (formerly Twitter) to Instagram’s algorithmic feed, content is no longer discovered; it is delivered. And often, it is delivered based on a predictive model of who you are and what will keep you hooked, not necessarily what will help you grow or understand.

The Battle for Attention and the Illusion of Choice

Most of us believe we’re in control. We follow who we want, like what we love, mute what annoys. Yet, research shows platforms progressively nudge us into habits, surfacing controversial, emotional, or visually striking posts to optimize “stickiness.” On X, posts with images get 150% more engagement, while text threads or nuanced debates are often side-lined by machine logic.

This is the danger of AI-shaped curation: human creativity begins to mirror machine logic.

This is the natural outcome of systems tuned for growth and retention. The longer you scroll, the more data you generate, and the more fine-tuned the content machine becomes, not just showing you what you want, but subtly training you what to want.

Creators must decide: Do I play the algorithmic game? Or do I build something more intentional?

This brings us to a fundamental tension: convenience vs. autonomy.

AI curates your digital diet, but is it healthy? Or just addictive? If we let algorithms determine what we consume, we risk losing curiosity. We enter a bubble of predictability. The infinite feed becomes a comfortable cage.

True autonomy means slowing down, making deliberate content choices, and sometimes closing the infinite feed altogether. That’s not easy, but it’s the only way to restore curiosity and break out of the bubble of predictability these systems build around us.

Substack vs. X – Two Worlds, Two Algorithms

My journey as a creator on both X and Substack began around the same time, under a pseudonym and with a mindset tuned to observation i.e., the Phantom Observer. Yet, the experiences couldn’t be more contrasting, a testimony to how platform design shapes both content and community.

X, which started as a haven for concise thoughts and real-time conversation, now operates as a full-fledged AI-driven engagement machine. Its algorithm is optimized for speed, virality, and emotional intensity. Quote-posts, polarized takes, and anything that provokes a reaction dominate. Outrage travels fast; quick, controversial opinions get exponentially more reach than careful nuance. The result? Content that is ephemeral, reactive, and crafted to trigger, not to foster understanding.

For creators, X is a relentless game of momentum. The algorithm rewards those who churn out frequent, trending material. Miss a beat, break from the formula, or simply try to cultivate slower, more thoughtful work, and you risk falling into algorithmic obscurity. You're not just creating for an audience; you're feeding a system that values attention above all else.

Substack, on the other hand, is built for intention over impulsiveness. Its feed is chronological, its algorithm mostly absent. Readers actively choose whose voices land in their inbox, sidestepping engagement-optimized feeds and placing control back in human hands.

Here, creators are free to invest in depth and substance, not just virality. Autonomy flows both ways: writers shape their message, cadence, and business model; readers dictate their own curiosity rather than being nudged by machine logic. Monetization is transparent and direct, your relationship with your audience isn’t brokered or rerouted by ads or secret scores(TweepCred), but sustained through subscriptions and trust.

In short, the architecture of each platform doesn’t just deliver content, it shapes the very identity of those who create on it. The medium moulds the message, and in this new world, the algorithm is as influential as any editor.

Strategy over Serendipity

To maintain control over your digital reality, especially as a creator, consider these strategies:

Choose your primary medium consciously.
Don’t default to where the crowd is. Choose based on the kind of relationship you want to build. Substack for depth? X for reach? YouTube for visual storytelling?
Balance virality and value.
Play the algorithm enough to be discovered, but lead audiences back to your owned ecosystem; your newsletter, your website, your community.
Build slow media muscles.
Invest in long-form content. Create bodies of work that age well. Train your audience to value substance.
Own your data and audience.
Email lists beat followers. Monetize directly. Platforms will change. Your relationship with your audience shouldn’t.
Use AI as a tool, not a master.
Let AI assist your workflow in editing, outlining, idea generation but retain authorship of meaning and intent.

SEO, Search, and the AI Shift

As AI begins to reshape how people discover content (with AI-generated summaries, conversational search, and ChatGPT-style interfaces), traditional SEO is evolving fast.

The classic strategies (keywords, backlinks, blog pyramids) are being replaced by semantic relevance and trust signals. AI crawlers now prioritize answer quality over clickbait. This shift benefits creators who focus on domain expertise and content depth.

Substack is well-positioned in this landscape: archives are public, readable, and semantically rich. X, on the other hand, still struggles with discoverability, especially beyond trending noise.

Expect this evolution to continue: search will become more answer-based than link-based, and content will be evaluated by AI models before reaching humans.

In that world, shallow won’t scale. Deep wins.

Funnelling Attention: From Noise to Nucleus

To thrive as a creator, you must channel attention rather than chase it.

Use high-velocity platforms like X to spark curiosity and start conversations.
Funnel interested minds toward slower, deeper platforms like Substack, where your full self can unfold.
Offer value at every level of engagement, be it a tweet, a thread, a newsletter, or a book.

This isn't just about growing an audience. It’s about building a community, a tribe of readers, thinkers, and fellow creators who align with your ethos.

That's what I'm doing. Slowly. Deliberately. Across platforms. Finding the overlap between what I want to say and what the world needs to hear.

In the Age of AI: Be a Signal, Not Just a Node

AI isn’t going away. If anything, it’s becoming the new infrastructure of discovery and discourse. But in that sea of intelligent automation, authenticity becomes your differentiator.

What makes you human will become your moat:

Your voice.
Your story.
Your long view in a short-form world.

If you’re a creator like me, trying to build signal amidst the noise, don’t just let platforms use your work to train their models. Use the platforms to train your audience to find you, trust you, and follow you across formats.

Because the most powerful asset in the attention economy isn’t reach, it’s resonance.