Late capitalism is no longer centered on factories, machinery, and wage labour alone. It has entered a new regime where attention—the most intimate resource of human consciousness—has become the critical site of extraction. This paper argues that contemporary digital capitalism has transformed human time into a commodity through persistent surveillance, algorithmic manipulation, and data-driven monetization of behaviour. Drawing from Marx’s theory of surplus value and the concept of alienation, the paper explains how platform corporations convert everyday cognitive activity into profit. By reorganizing labour into fragmented, invisible, and unpaid forms—scrolling, liking, watching—Big Tech creates a new class condition: the proletariat of attention. Through case studies from India’s platform economy, the article highlights how leisure is no longer free but a domain of exploitation where emotional states, relationships, and desires become commercial assets. This shift represents a decisive mutation in capitalism—one that colonizes mental time and blurs boundaries between labour and life. The paper concludes by suggesting that reclaiming attention is foundational to reclaiming autonomy in the twenty-first century, positioning attention politics as the heart of future struggles against capitalist domination.