Capitalizing on the look: insights into the glance, attention economy, and Instagram

This article argues for the reconceptualization of the glance as more than a phenomenological orientation and a means of perceiving the world. I propose that the glance is a key feature of our attention economy, which positions attention as the most valuable commodity. By examining the technical infrastructure of the social media site Instagram, I argue that (1) the glance is implicated in the name itself and the interface design of the site; (2) the glance orients the user to a specific type of user behavior; and (3) the glance functions as a precursor to social and economic capital. I argue that this reconceptualization of the glance in relation to the attention economy demonstrates how the glance is becoming a dominant mode of seeing and thus affecting social and economic behavior.