That addictive like button appearing on almost every website is confining us in the "bubble of me." Pandora uses your likes to create the perfect radio station. Netflix uses your ratings to craft a list of movies perfect just for you. Facebook uses your likes for personalized ads. The list goes on. You can't even do a general search on Google anymore without information from your Google account being used to create a tailored list of results. Everything has become crafted for who you are at a single moment regardless of the fact that you and your preferences will change.
I am not anti-technology, in fact quite the contrary. I love Pandora, my iPhone, and most technological advancements just as much, if not more than the average individual. However, I question the direction my favorite Internet companies are steering us regarding how they use our preferences to determine what they offer us.
One of the Internet's greatest gifts is that it inspires exploration. In such a constant barrage of our preferences, we are losing this gift. Before preferences and likes, we were more likely to read things we didn't know we were interested in, only to find out we just happen to love design, or foreign films, or funny cat pictures. This was partially because sites did not specifically know what to offer us, so they offered everything and people explored. In a way sites such as Stumbleupon allow for this, but it is not the Internet giant that Facebook or Google are and it is within these ecosystems that the average individual spends most of their online time.
I began noticing the preferences dilemma with Pandora. Pandora presents itself as a place to explore music and use your like of one particular artist to connect you with similar artists. But I found that once I started clicking that wonderful thumbs up button, Pandora actually began to limit my music. When I play my Ray Charles station, only songs I previously liked play and that feeling of excitement I had when I first started using Pandora had been lost to my preferences.
A friend recently complained about Google ads on her G-Mail. She loves to ski and while she appreciates that Google advertises skiing related content, she wonders about the potential hobbies she is missing. What about a class, say metal casting, that she has never even considered or knew about, but if she were to see an ad about it, would click and take up a new hobby. She just needs that first level of engagement that currently lies outside her preferences.
In the moment an individual gazes at something new there is the potential for a mental tipping point. If the new thought peaks their interest just enough, they will likely seek more information. Coffee shops, local bookstores, and University bulletin boards were and are, places where pamphlets for random courses and get-togethers are posted. People read these and become interested in things that just barely peek their interest only to later find out they have a new hobby. The first level of engagement is opened to them. We must find a way to adequately translate that experience of randomness and curiosity to the web. Perhaps it can include some form of preference-based algorithms but the pendulum has swung too far towards keeping us confined. It could be as easy as an explore setting.
I am not against the general premise of the like button or websites catering to our interests. Most of the time these tools are beneficial. But the future is no longer about tailoring our needs and giving access to the things we already know we like. The future, the great start-up of tomorrow, lies in our interests to explore, to peak new interests, to find new hobbies that enrich our lives. The future is helping people discover what they don't even know they like.
-David Beiner
No comments:
Post a Comment