A vertiginous plunge into the new "image economy"

With the advent of social media and the stranglehold of virtual social skills, images can now be distributed instantaneously, creating a genuine revolution. As soon as an image is created, it can be shared with the entire world by any smartphone user. As a result, "attention" is now the most sought-after commodity, taking over from other once key resources, such as gold and oil. The paradox is that in this new visual economy, we are both the supplier and the consumer. Our lives are becoming dematerialized and controlled by algorithms that are erasing the very things that make each of us unique.