Attention economy to generative AI

Toward a conceptual framework of emotional absence in family relationships

Abstract

The expansion of the attention economy—from persuasive technology and algorithmic curation to generative AI—is proposed to shape human capacity for emotional presence in family relationships. Prior research has mapped part of this process separately: the phubbing and FoMO literature explains a distraction mechanism (why attention shifts), while the still-limited generative AI literature indicates a substitution mechanism (why human connection risks being replaced). This conceptual family psychology article integrates both mechanisms, grounded in philosophical perspectives each bridged to a contemporary psychological theory. It proposes the Cascading Mechanism of Emotional Absence (CMEA)—a layered conceptual pathway from the attention economy to psychological distress through two mutually reinforcing pathways, distraction and substitution, converging on the displacement of human relationships—together with the Cascading Restoration of Emotional Presence (CREP) as its recovery pathway. Emotional absence is proposed to be understood not merely as an individual psychological condition, but as a structural-relational phenomenon requiring further empirical testing.