Interesting idea from Slate. The reason we spend so much time on crap on the web is not due to boredom, it’s the desire to accumulate social currency. This provides a good model for how to draw more attention to your website.

How does it explain the time people spend on flash game sites though?

What’s needed for social currency?

A basic model for social currency:

For me to make an successfully “sell” you information, I need:

1. For me to know it

2. For me to know you don’t know it

3. For me to know you’re interested in knowing it

4. Basic reciprocity relationship established.

A basic model for attempting to engage is that 2 * 3 * 4 has to be high enough. Thus, any means of increasing 2, 3, 4 would increase the capital value of your site.

2: Make it exclusive, obscure… this is why bands have “sold out” when they become popular. The fan is reacting to the debasement of their currency

3: Good content, duh!

4: Is there much we can do here?

This seems the wrong way to think about it. Need to mull over more exactly what attention in exchange for currency really means…