Simply telling young people to “put down the phone” is not enough. We must show them a future that is worth putting the phone down for.

In the modern economy, it is no longer just labor, capital, and knowledge that are in competition; human attention, too, has become a marketable resource. Social media platforms, short-form video apps, online games, cryptocurrency markets, betting culture, and promises of quick riches are all chasing after the same scarce resource: the time and attention of young people.

For this reason, the concept of the “attention economy” is not merely a technological issue. It is a matter intertwined with education, employment, mental health, social inequality, and human capital. This issue takes on even greater significance in societies where youth education and employment rates are low.

There is a specific term used to describe young people who are neither in education, nor in employment, nor in vocational training: NEET (Youth not in employment, education or training) (https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/youth-not-in-employment-education-or-training-neet.html). According to Eurostat data, in 2024, approximately 11% of young people aged 15–29 within the European Union fell into the NEET category (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Statistics_on_young_people_neither_in_employment_nor_in_education_or_training). In Turkey, this picture is far worse. Reports based on youth data from TurkStat indicate that 23.3% of young people aged 15–24 are neither in education nor in employment (https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/amp/nearly-one-in-four-young-people-in-turkiye-neither-studying-nor-employed-data-shows-222131). These figures go beyond mere economic statistics; they reflect society’s forward-looking capacity for production, learning, and renewal.

For a young person to cultivate a long-term skill, time, discipline, repetition, and patience are required. Learning a language, acquiring a trade, gaining academic depth, developing software, becoming a skilled artisan, mastering scientific inquiry, or specializing in a field that generates social value—none of these occur overnight. Yet, the attention economy constantly offers individuals rewards that are faster, easier, and more stimulating. Short-form videos, instant “likes,” rapidly consumable content, and tales of speculative riches are causing long-term effort to give way to short-term dopamine loops.

The most dangerous aspect of this cycle is not merely that it results in wasted time. More importantly, it fundamentally alters the expectation structure of young people. As the concept of success—traditionally built upon hard work, education, professional expertise, and social contribution—begins to erode, the allure of “rising to the top overnight,” “going viral,” “getting rich through crypto,” “making a fortune in the stock market,” “becoming an influencer,” or “securing one’s future via a shortcut” grows ever stronger. Of course, there are individuals who achieve success in these arenas. However, these are, more often than not, exceptional cases. The attention economy highlights these exceptions while rendering invisible the losses incurred by the majority—and the time they have squandered.

Here, a “winner-takes-all” logic prevails. While a select few attain immense visibility, substantial income, or massive financial gains, a far larger multitude merely expends their hours, their attention, and their capacity for learning. This situation proves particularly devastating for vulnerable young people. Young people who have become disengaged from education, failed to enter the labor market, struggled to find their vocational path, or whose hopes for the future have dimmed may be more likely to gravitate toward speculative pursuits rather than engage in patient skill-building. This is because long-term paths may appear closed off, arduous, or meaningless to them, whereas short-term promises seem more attainable.

It is inappropriate to approach this issue solely through the lens of moral panic. Generalizations such as “young people are lazy,” “they have been corrupted by their phones,” or “things weren’t like this in the past” can prevent us from recognizing the structural dimensions of the problem. For the issue at hand is not merely a matter of weak individual willpower. On one side lies high youth unemployment, a mismatch between education and employment, job insecurity, and stalled social mobility; on the other stand algorithmic systems designed by the world’s most powerful corporations specifically to capture and retain human attention. The young individual often finds themselves isolated amidst these two converging pressures.

The OECD’s assessments of children’s lives in the digital age also underscore this complexity. Social media use does not have the same effect on every child or young person; rather, the nature of the content, the manner of use, existing offline vulnerabilities, and one’s social environment can be decisive factors. However, particular emphasis is placed on the fact that, especially among vulnerable adolescents, social media use may be linked to addiction-like behaviors and stress. Consequently, the issue is not merely “screen time,” but rather which psychological and social voids the screen serves to fill (https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/how-s-life-for-children-in-the-digital-age_0854b900-en/full-report/introduction-and-main-findings_67c79516.html).

It is no coincidence that, today, many countries are attempting to limit children’s and adolescents’ social media usage or to regulate the addictive designs of these platforms. Within the European Union, new regulations targeting manipulative and addictive digital designs are currently under discussion; meanwhile, in various countries—most notably Australia—age restrictions regarding children’s access to social media are being brought to the agenda. These developments demonstrate that the “attention economy” is no longer a simple issue that can be resolved solely through individual family upbringing (https://www.reuters.com/world/eu-targets-social-media-protect-children-von-der-leyen-says-2026-05-12/).

However, prohibitions and restrictions alone are insufficient. The fundamental challenge is to once again offer young people a meaningful vision of the future. If a young person does not believe they can build a future through education, a profession, science, the arts, a craft, or social contribution, it is simply impossible to divert their attention away from screens. When this vacant attention is not filled with a meaningful objective, it will inevitably revert to the same cycle.

Therefore, the most potent response to the attention economy is not merely a “digital detox,” but rather a focus on the skills economy, the work ethic, and policies of social justice. Young people’s access to quality education, career guidance, internship and employment opportunities, academic freedom, spaces for cultural production, and safe social environments must be actively supported. Young people classified as NEETs should not be viewed merely as a statistical category, but rather as potential scientists, teachers, physicians, technicians, artists, entrepreneurs, and citizens—individuals whom society runs the risk of losing.

A society’s human capital does not vanish overnight. First, attention becomes fragmented; then, the motivation to learn wanes; subsequently, skill development is disrupted; and finally, hope for the future begins to fade. Ultimately, high-quality human capital melts away like snow in the sun. To halt this erosion, simply telling young people to “put down the phone” is not enough. We must show them a future worth putting the phone down for.