A system and method for managing user attention by detecting hot topics in social indexes is provided. Articles of digital information and at least one social index are maintained. The social index includes topics that each relate to one or more of the articles. Topic models matched to the digital information are retrieved for each topic. The articles are classified under the topics using the topic models. Each of the topics in the social index is evaluated for hotness. A plurality of time periods projected from the present is defined. Counts of the articles appearing under each time period are evaluated. The topics exhibiting a rising curve in the count of the articles that increases with recency during the time periods are chosen. Quality of the articles within the topics chosen is analyzed. The topics including the articles having acceptable quality are presented.