Space Invaders: My ‘Personal Space’ Includes My Digital Space
A friend of mine used to play a game on the days he chose to walk home from his office in midtown Manhattan to his apartment in the west 70’s. On beautiful early evening strolls he’d see if he could go the distance without anyone bumping into or brushing against him during the 45-minute walk. He typically traveled through Times Square, so let’s just say he lost the game far more than he won it. And losing meant people invading his personal space which can be no big deal for some or a severe breach of good social behavior for others. I also live in NYC and I appreciate the importance of personal space, which I learned well before “social distancing” became a thing. Hop on any subway during rush hour and you play a mental game of Tetris finding ways to fit yourself into the train but with as much distance from others as you can calculate without a slide rule. I have become protective of my personal space and my definition of it now extends to my “digital space.” I don’t believe I am alone in such space-y thinking.
On September 9, 2014 Apple launched the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch during their big Cupertino event. On that day, they also shoved U2’s album Songs of Innocence into every iTunes user’s personal digital space. Without asking, the new U2 album was added to the “purchased” section of more than 500 million digital music libraries around the world. Tim Cook and the band called it “a gift.” I (and many others) called it “something we didn’t ask for” that took up more than 100MB of my digital space. Apple soon learned they overstepped and while not admitting it, after first making it impossible to delete the album, they quickly created a removal page with custom-coded delete button and step-by-step instructions for those looking to “return the gift” (delete it) from their assorted Apple hardware. U2’s Bono summed it up on NPR like this:
“We wanted to deliver a pint of milk to people’s front porches, but in a few cases it ended up in their fridge, on their cereal. People were like, ‘I’m dairy-free.’”
Well, apparently I’m lactose intolerant. I appreciate U2, love their early work, saw them live at a tiny theater in Boonton, NJ decades ago, but I didn’t appreciate their album being added into my digital space without asking me first. That space is mine. Apple worked hard to create the platform and give me, and everyone else on iTunes, the power to curate our media collections exactly how we want them and then take it with us. It was a game changer. Then Apple changed the game and broke their own social-contract by forcing content into our personal digital space and, worst of all, they broke it for corporate marketing and promotion which is, as some say, “icky.” The whole thing felt wrong.
Recently, I noticed something similar from NPR. For decades I’ve been a fan of the weekly comedy news show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Before it was ever a podcast it was my weekend must-hear radio programming. When it became a podcast, the feed immediately went into my automatic downloads where it has faithfully been ever since…until last week when I deleted it. About two months ago NPR launched a new podcast called Everyone & Their Mom. Maybe you know it, maybe you don’t, it doesn’t really matter as much as the fact that NPR decided I needed to have it despite my not asking for it. So every Wednesday this new show that ISN’T Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! now shows up in my Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! feed — an unwanted invader into my personal digital space. I tried it the first week and decided it’s not for me. I completely respect that NPR is trying new things and I appreciate NPR leveraging all their resources to create and promote a new show with the hopes of building an audience for it. But it’s been more than two months and I don’t want it. Yes, I can swipe and delete it, but NPR can just as easily give it its own channel (which it deserves) and not invade the one I’ve built a relationship with the past decade.
I get that this is textbook definition “first-world” problems but with the Metaverse on the horizon (the galaxy?) this could become a real (virtual) world issue and needs to be considered now because the “distance” between personal physical space and personal digital space continues to shrink and blur. As of this writing, 35 of the last 50 reviews for Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! are not fans of the new podcast being placed into the channel, with nearly all 35 specifically mentioning the invasion and asking NPR to respect their feeds and stop delivering what wasn’t ordered. Recieving unwanted content to our computers and phones is not the same as getting junkmail or robocalls. Respecting such an idea will help build a better relationship between us and anyone looking to get our attention. Some companies are brilliant at maintaining a healthy connection. They undertsand and consider boundaries and work hard to balance their own excitement for a new product with the increasingly difficult goal of getting it to an audience already overly saturated by messaging. Many companies truly understand and recognize it’s way easier for potential customers to opt-out than it was to get them (us) to opt-in, so doing everything to keep us is paramount. And sometimes doing everything means doing less and respecting our space.
