Modeling individual attention dynamics on online social media

In the attention economy, understanding how individuals manage limited attention is critical. We introduce a simple model describing the decay of a user’s engagement when facing multiple inputs. Assuming that active commenters receive more attention, we analytically show that individual attention decay is determined by the overall duration of interactions, not their number or user activity. Our model is validated using data from Reddit’s Change My View subreddit, where the user’s attention dynamics is explicitly traceable. Despite its simplicity, our model offers a crucial microscopic perspective complementing macroscopic studies. In contemporary digital environments, it is important to understand how an individual’s attention decays with time when confronted with numerous online social interactions. Here, the authors show that this decay is fully driven by the total duration of the interactions, independent of thread size and user activity.