The Attention Economy Mind Rot

Ice cream so good!

Pinkydoll

Balloon! Pop pop pop pop pop.

Just when you think the depths of the internet can’t sink any lower, you’re reminded that we’ve got a long way to go until we hit rock bottom. 

The latest viral trend to surface on TikTok — which could be the most braindead yet (and yes, I’m aware people ate TidePods) — has me questioning the sanity of humanity. That trend is NPC streaming. 

If you’re unfamiliar, let’s pull it back a little. An NPC is a phrase used in video games, meaning a non-playable character. Essentially these are characters you interact with in a game world but never take control of. They often break conversational norms, repeating the same few lines or actions over and over. And with the state of modern games on release day, many can’t even manage that, preferring to glitch, T-pose, or remain eerily silent. In sum, NPCs are very uncanny valley. 

And recently, someone had the great idea to translate this concept into a way to make money. 

Gang gang. Gang gang. Gang gang.

Enter Pinkydoll, the first person to go viral with NPC streaming. If you need a sample, here’s a whole hour of it. I warn you; it will melt your brain. That one is just the tip of the iceberg too. Pinkydoll has done streams that last over five hours. 

She sits, holding a pair of straighteners (which she sometimes uses to pop the icons that appear on the screen), repeating the same phrases and emotes in response to the icon viewers pay to send her. And it turns out to be a money cheat code — according to an article in The Guardian, Pinkydoll has made $2000-3000 per stream, and when added to her other streams across Instagram and OnlyFans, that number can hit over $7000 per day. Seven thousand dollars.

Honestly, I have to respect the hustle. To repeat five catchphrases for more than 2 minutes takes effort and commitment; to do so for hours on end without breaking character (aside from the times she has to tell her child off, who, by this point, must be so confused when “mommy needs to go be an NPC”), is above and beyond.

And hey, if people are willing to pay, you can’t judge the creator. 

Slurp. Ice cream so good.

However, you can judge the audience. The question it leaves me struggling with is who is watching it? And why are they watching it? 

Watching it — and trust me, I tried it for the purposes of research — had me wanting to gouge my eyes out. So it clearly isn’t for me. One answer is obvious. The content could definitely be considered fetish content. Many viewers will find something sexual about a) Pinkydoll herself and b) being able to control her every word and gesture by sending her this or that gift. They say if you can think of it, they’ve made a porn of it; apparently, the phrase should be modified to if you can think of it, somebody has made money live-streaming it. But Pinkydoll has had over 50,000 people watching her streams. So, if you’re not here for fetish content, what gives? Is it enjoyment? Fascination? Bewilderment? The most brain-numbing of distractions from the real world? I just can’t form an answer to that. 

Yeehaw, yes, you got me feeling like a cowgirl.

NPC streaming is the result of the attention economy, in the sense that creators are having to do dumber and dumber things to get attention and that we, as the audience, have become mindless in how we spend our attention. In other words, the social media landscape is rotting the brains of the audience.

In Hollywood, a battle is raging between actors and streaming platforms, and one of the main sticking points is the potential use of A.I. The big streaming platforms want to model actors so they no longer have to pay real humans. When I first read that, I immediately shot it down because I didn’t think people would want to watch content written by A.I., made by A.I., starring A.I. But now, with thousands of people watching NPC streaming, I’m not sure. People will watch anything. A.I. provides further examples; A.I.-generated articles and A.I.-generated music, all of which are gaining popularity. We’ve stopped caring if our content is made by humans. We’ve become programmed to seek the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, barely processing what it is, or why it is. I’d go even further and say we don’t even want content that challenges us anymore; the easier to digest, the better. It portrays a scary future where we plug ourselves into the machine and eat up whatever content is served. No standards, taste, or opinions, just the most mind-numbing, human-less content. 

The creator economy is going the same way. If we, the audience, keep watching poorer and poorer content, we allow the bar to slip lower and lower.

Not that Pinkydoll is bothered about what you or I think. Speaking to the New York Times, she said, “I don’t really care what people say about me. If they want to think I am this or that, it’s fine with me. At the end of the day, I’m winning.” 

Well, she’s winning today. But as we know, with the attention economy, it’s much like a drug addiction. What hits today won’t deliver the same buzz tomorrow. NPC streaming will be nothing more than a quick fad that leaves a sour taste and a worrying nod to just how low the standard of content can sink.