By 2014 attention had become an accepted currency itself, often paid instead of money

Evidence

In a major attention-capture stunt, Kim Kardashian famously used Instagram in 2014 to send out a picture of her nearly naked backside in an attempt to “break the Internet.” It may not quite have done that, but it paid off in attention earned; it must have, because Kardashian’s management, normally so efficient about getting paid, negotiated no other compensation. It was further evidence of attention’s having become an accepted form of currency. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1049

Categorization

• XREF: Culminates the book’s long-running ‘attention as currency’ argument; directly pays off earlier chapters on advertising barter and pay-with-attention models. — connects to: By the mid-2010s attention was openly proclaimed the universal currency across industries — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1049; Attention now functions like money as a common metric for cultural value. — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 18; Attention is a currency that is always being spent and cannot be saved — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 63
• DEEPTHINKING: Kardashian’s team accepting pure attention as full compensation shows the normalization of attention-as-currency — a case where the medium’s own tacit conversion rate makes money-denominated payment redundant.

Broader Connections

• By the mid-2010s attention was openly proclaimed the universal currency across industries #corroborates (0.95) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1049
• Attention now functions like money as a common metric for cultural value. #corroborates (0.85) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 18
• Attention is a currency that is always being spent and cannot be saved #expands (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 63