POWER FANTASIES IN THE ATTENTION ECONOMY: SOLO LEVELING AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPEAL OF ALGORITHMIC MERITOCRACY AMONG DIGITAL YOUTH

Lakshmi Ravi Pillai

doi:10.29121/ShodhVichar.v2.i2.2026.131

Authors

Dr. Lakshmi Ravi Pillai Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Mass Media, Vidyalankar School of Information Technology, Wadala, Mumbai – 400037, India Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29121/ShodhVichar.v2.i2.2026.131

Keywords:

Popular Culture, Attention Economy, Media Literacy, Algorithmic Ethics, Webtoon, Anime, Solo Leveling

Abstract

The rising popularity of level-up narratives in webtoon and anime among youth, while indicative of a fascination with the fantasy genre, also reflects deeper cultural negotiations with algorithmic systems that structure contemporary digital life. This paper examines Solo Leveling, as a cultural text that embodies the ideological foundation of the modern attention economy. Its popularity across different forms is derived from its world of algorithmic meritocracy as emotionally satisfying and socially legitimate. Central to this narrative is the “System”, a hidden, authoritative system that assesses effort, grants reward and promises upward mobility through quantifiable performance. This paper argues that Solo Leveling offers a fantasy of perfect recognition, where labour is seen, performance is measured and corresponding outcomes are fair. For digital youth living in social media characterized by precarity, invisibility, inconsistent performance metrics and rewards, this narrative provides psychological reassurance. The protagonist rises from a weakling to an overpowered superhuman. This progression functions as algorithmic wish-fulfillment, a desire for a system that fairly converts effort to value.

The analysis highlights how the series privileges individual enhancement over collective action. Emotional connect is created through grind culture, rigourous self-discipline and perseverance, which reinforces meritocratic myth and overlooks structural inequality. This draws on parasocial identification; viewers internalize the struggles as a proxy for their own aspirations within data-driven environment. This study conducts a qualitative textual analysis of crucial narrative arcs within the world of stat screens, rank disclosures and reward notifications as media objects. These are analyzed alongside fan discourse to examine youth perception and affective investment.

References

Abidin, C. (2018). Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online. Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787560765

Andrejevic, M. (2014). Infoglut: How too Much Information is Changing the Way We Think and Know. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203075319

Bucher, T. (2018). If...then: Algorithmic Power and Politics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190493028.001.0001

Cho, H. (2021). The Platformization of Culture: Webtoon Platforms and Media Ecology in Korea and Beyond. The Journal of Asian Studies, 80(1), 73–93. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911820002405

Chugong. (2018–2023). Solo Leveling [Webtoon]. Kakao Webtoon.

Cotter, K. (2019). Playing the Visibility Game: How Digital Influencers and Algorithms Negotiate Influence on Instagram. New Media & Society, 21(4), 895–913. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818815684

Couldry, N., and Mejias, U. A. (2019). The Costs of Connection: How Data is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating it for Capitalism. Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503609754

Dardot, P., and Laval, C. (2013). The New Way of the World: On neoliberal Society. Verso.

Doremi, S. (Director). (2024). Solo Leveling [Anime Series]. Crunchyroll.

Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Pantheon Books. (Original Work Published 1975)

Fuchs, C. (2014). Social Media: A Critical Introduction (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446270066

Gillespie, T. (2014). The Relevance of Algorithms. In T. Gillespie, P. J. Boczkowski, & K. A. Foot (Eds.), Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society (167–194). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9042.003.0013

Gillespie, T. (2018). Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media. Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300235029

Gill, R. (2007). Gender and the Media. Polity Press.

Goldhaber, M. H. (1997). The Attention Economy and the Net. First Monday, 2(4). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v2i4.519

Goldhaber, M. H. (2006). The Value of Openness in an Attention Economy. First Monday, 11(6). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v11i6.1334

Han, B.-C. (2015). The Burnout Society (E. Butler, Trans.). Stanford University Press.

Hjarvard, S. (2013). The Mediatization of Culture and Society. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203155363

Horton, D., and Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction. Psychiatry, 19(3), 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049

Jang, W., and Song, J. E. (2017). Webtoon as a New Korean Wave in the Process of Glocalization. Kritika Kultura, 29. https://doi.org/10.13185/KK2017.02908

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York University Press.

Jin, D. Y. (2015). Digital Convergence of Korea's Webtoons: Transmedia Storytelling. Communication Research and Practice, 1(3), 193–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2015.1079150

Khamis, S., Ang, L., and Welling, R. (2017). Self-Branding, “Micro-Celebrity” and the Rise of Social Media Influencers. Celebrity Studies, 8(2), 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2016.1218292

Lamerichs, N. (2020). Scrolling, Swiping, Selling: Understanding Webtoons and the Data-Driven Participatory Culture Around Comics. Journal of Audience Reception Studies, 17(2).

Lynn, H.-G. (n.d.). Korean Webtoons: Explaining Growth. 韓国研究センター年報, 16.

Nam, J., and Jung, Y. (2022). Exploring Fans' Participation in Digital Media: Transcreation of Webtoons. Telecommunications Policy, 46(10), 102407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2022.102407

Nieborg, D. B., and Poell, T. (2018). The Platformization of Cultural Production. New Media & Society, 20(11), 4275–4292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818769694

Pasquale, F. (2015). The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms that Control Money and Information. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674736061

Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform Capitalism. Polity Press.

Striphas, T. (2015). Algorithmic Culture. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(4–5), 395–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549415577392

Terranova, T. (2000). Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy. Social Text, 18(2), 33–58. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-18-2_63-33

van Dijck, J., Poell, T., and de Waal, M. (2018). The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190889760.001.0001

Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Publicaffairs.