Abstract

Digitality is increasing at an anxious pace. The multi-screens form a cyber-territory that shadows the geographical spaces, offering a new dimension to the feeling of existing. In this “continent of bytes”, social ties are mostly articulated around image exchanges. One of the most dramatic signs of these times is the insane search for the capture and negotiation of the look. The look - and what it entails and presupposes - is the essential commodity of the “attention economy”. In an essayistic way, in order to inspire a critical thinking about this capitalist exhibitionistic era, this article articulates concepts from sociology, philosophy, communication and psychoanalysis around the exploration of a structural mark of the human, the look, a subjective potential that establishes primevals bonds with the maternal function and, forever, dynamizes the most diverse social links. It is assumed that we are witnessing a decisive step in the mode of production that, if previously focused on the workforce and the constitution of “docile bodies” adjusted to the machines, today tracks the digital footprints to imprison looks, which, glued to the screens, hypnotize themselves in the trap of attention to nourish the algorithmic business of spirit, behavior, opinion, hatred, faith, shopping, voting.