Lakshmi Ravi Pillai

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

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 i...