For a long time I thought that I was making my own decisions, and then I read an article about how Netflix personalizes cover artwork. Suddenly I’m questioning all of my “so-called” choices. I mean, we all experiment with, and think about how much free will we actually have… thanks a lot Wachowskis. But, this article revealed a seam in the true nature of an experience I very much took for granted and now I’m beginning to scrutinize other aspects of my everyday experience just a little bit more.
First, off what’s the deal with this article?
Alright, so I linked it above… but, here’s the tl;dr:
Netflix changes content cover art based on other movies that you like.
If you’re scratching your head, here’s an example of what I’m talking about: Good Will Hunting, a movie made in 1997 about a university janitor that’s good at math.
If you have watched a lot of romantic comedy… you will see cover art that includes Matt Damon and Minnie Driver hunting for smooches.
If you have watched a lot of regular comedy in the past… you will see cover art that includes Robin Williams looking like he’s proud of Will for being so good.
Now, chances are that you’re sitting there thinking “so what” or “duh”.
If that is the case… then this might not be the article for you because I’m about to go deep.
If that is NOT the case… then what I’m about to say might shock you, like it shocked me.
So, what IS the big deal?
The big deal is that this wasn’t something I ever considered… that my netflix cover art images would be different than someone else’s. I knew the movies and the shows would be different but I didn’t realize that my experience was THAT granular.
Then I started thinking about the NETFLIX experience in general. From a UI perspective, when someone browses the NETFLIX cover art, that basically is the NETFLIX experience. There really isn’t much else to SEE.
OH SNAP.
What other websites are personalized so, personally? Is Facebook pushing brand-heavy status updates the same way it pushes statuses that I’m more likely to interact with? Does Instagram learn to serve me advertisements more frequently at night when I’m also more likely to browse Amazon? How deep does this go and where is it headed?
The Rabbit Hole
Alright, so if you’ve read anything from me in the past then you’d know that I like to connect dots and follow them to a possible, logical endpoint. Some people call this exercise a “thought experiment”, others call it “conspiracy theorizing”. Whatever you call it, buckle your seatbelts cause here are the three questions I’m using to plot my journey:
Question 1
How much of our everyday experience is curated and personalized?Question 2
Will these curated/personalized experiences become more frequent over time?Question 3
If these things are true, what future experiences along these lines would freak me out?
In answering question 1 I turned to Mashable, a reputable technology publication. The first thing I discovered was that there was a whole field of marketing dedicated to determining how best to use data for the sake of advertising. In fact, this article offers 3 ways marketers should personalize the online experience. These “3 C’s” include:
- Developing a robust Customer profile
(if you fill out your whole profile then you’re probably an all star of some sort.) - Putting website interactions into Context
(cross referencing behavior against the date, time of day, and other separate… but related data points.) - Describing how data is used into greater Context
(“because you watched…”)
So how much of our everyday experience is customized and/or personalized, and will this become more common over time? Here’s a quote from that same article:
“The ability to offer a personalized experience online is quickly becoming a requirement for companies to stay relevant…” — Tom Wentworth, Mashable
So it seems like the big boys are probably doing this a lot and these marketing strategies will continue to influence product design into the future. I guess I need to prepare myself to be continually and fundamentally examined by marketing teams. Good.
Time to get a little crazy
Now it’s time to address that third question:
Question 3
If so, what future experiences along these lines would freak me out?
So where might all this go?
Well, let’s say that a few years from now Pat (a human person I invented, based on market research) decides to go for a ride in his/her new Mercedes. He/she sets their smartphone GPS, and proceeds through town in search of food. However, since Pat has been leaving a trail of metadata in his/her wake for the last 34 years, the gps decides to make a few decisions in Pat’s best interest — to give him/her a more personalized experience.
The glass on the inside of Pat’s new car is also the new “Smart Glass (Patent Pending)” and the visual experience is now personalized for Pat as well. Pat now rolls through town seeing personalized billboards and storefronts for brands that he’s bought from in the past and a few newcomers with growing marketing budgets. Heck, green lights are now brought to you by Adidas and if you want to shave a few moments off the next red light and qualify for 10% off your next purchase, simply provide your email and click this tiny link if you want to read a dissertation on identity theft.
But it doesn’t stop there, everything Pat hears and smells is also personalized. Pat didn’t settle for a Honda, he/she dished out the additional monthly payments for a car filter that understands that Pat is special. And, more likely to recall past experiences based on his/her sense of smell.
Surprise!
So if you haven’t gathered this already, this is mostly an article I’m writing in jest. But, where I went with this exercise wasn’t completely futile, in fact we’re all headed in this direction and as soon as some company discovers a profitable business model around shipping this kind of technology at a price point that the consumer is willing to bear… well, let’s just say…
Are you still watching?
Here’s what you can do:
- Give a shit about net neutrality.
Rule of thumb: Never vote in favor of something that a telecommunications giant is also in favor of. You don’t have the same interests as them, regardless of what they say. - Give a shit about artificial intelligence, specifically as it relates to ethics.
This paper predicts that 5 million jobs will be lost to ai by 2020, Jan 2016 - Assume negative intention unless demonstrated the opposite.
Companies pay hackers to be quiet about data breaches. The ones you hear about are the symptoms of a much larger identity problem. - Delete accounts that you don’t use and Google yourself every once in a while.
Here’s a great article on “commiting internet suicide” (award winning clickbait title)
Alright, that’s it for now. I went in a different direction this time around — less explicitly informative and a bit more entertaining. What did you think? Leave a comment or “Make it clap”.
