# Novelty and Collective Attention

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how collective attention to new information spreads and diminishes among large populations, using data from Digg.com, and models the process with a dynamical approach involving a novelty decay law.

## Contribution

It introduces a dynamical model of collective attention based on a single novelty factor and characterizes the decay of attention with a stretched-exponential law.

## Key findings

- Attention decay follows a stretched-exponential law.
- A natural time scale governs the fading of attention.
- The model effectively describes attention dynamics among millions of users.

## Abstract

The subject of collective attention is central to an information age where millions of people are inundated with daily messages. It is thus of interest to understand how attention to novel items propagates and eventually fades among large populations. We have analyzed the dynamics of collective attention among one million users of an interactive website -- \texttt{digg.com} -- devoted to thousands of novel news stories. The observations can be described by a dynamical model characterized by a single novelty factor. Our measurements indicate that novelty within groups decays with a stretched-exponential law, suggesting the existence of a natural time scale over which attention fades.