Algorithm
‘Hey Google, play my playlist’. It’s evening, around 9 pm, on a regular Wednesday still a couple of weeks before the holiday of all holidays, yup Xmas.
People behave differently this time of year. Crazed: ‘how am I going to get all those gifts that will hit the target, get them all wrapped, shipped, paid for!!!’ Last minute stuff for work, finish the year strong, stir in the excitement, friends, family, parties, plenty of reason to let loose, pretty much the gambit the full emotional spectrum.
This is who we are, people feeling things, often unaware of the origins. We are complex as we are simple, making us difficult targets for those attempting to, for lack of a better term, manipulate, get us to do their bidding. While this is the driving force behind our interaction with media, the leading source for most, could be, on occasion, of use.
I’m doing some writing, a few sudokus (use these to stay sharp), stretch, some serious multitasking going down. The music, always have it in the background, find it can be helpful in getting me to focus, when it dawns on me the majority of the tunes are permeating the air with a dose of melancholy. A bit odd since my playlist, set to shuffle with over 500 songs in this one, has quite the variety, classical, pop, rock (all textures), not much jazz or rap, haven’t acquired the taste.
Paying closer attention my suspicions are confirmed. Why then this tenor? Who decided, Spotify my platform, I wanted/needed to be soothed, soothed by the likes of Roberta Flack Strumming my Pain, Sade anything, Whitney — I will always love you, the title mirroring my feelings for her, moistening my corneas, tragic.
An algorithm no doubt, also doubtlessly created by some team of smart, young, people. The parameters, the data mining, all participate in this the final product. We are relatively open books, I most definitely am since I don’t give a fuck about what they track when it comes to my use of their platforms, my camera, microphone, on any and all my devices. I’ve even made a conscious decision, much to the chagrin of my son, to contribute to Google Maps by uploading thousands of pictures, leaving (mostly positive or I’ll refrain) reviews, eateries predominately. I’m a believer in crowdsourcing, my way of sharing.
How sophisticated are these algorithms? Saw that documentary, they are to many, downright scary.
Back to the skewed playlist. What/where did they draw from producing this mix? The time of day, day of the week, my location, recent searches, sites I’d visited, stuff I’d written for this blog in docs, things I’ve been talking to people about, all/none of the above? If not it’s coming, my file megabits/bytes whatever, a wealth, well a lot anyway, of information specific to me, presumably my wants/needs parsed, distributed, projected, to tell me how I feel, what I feel, knowing me better than me.
Was then my tenor melancholy? This has given me pause, go back take a closer look, see if they have me pegged. May well be, somethings however, they will never know.
