Defining Personalization
What is the first thing you see as you read the word ‘Personalization?’ I understand this keyword as first coming from its root word: ‘personal,’ which is in other words something that belongs to you and only you, though this is not the only understanding for this keyword. Considering the word personalization as a noun, the word personale as an adjective and the word personalize as a verb, the origins of these terms “all stem from the Latin personalis or personale, which means ‘pertaining to a person’” (Ricker Schulte 243). According to an article written by Stafford McKay about personalization, the keyword is being “chewed up” a lot by people in our industry (Mckay 2015). It seems like there are a lot of different definitions out there with a variety of ideas of what the word could actually mean. In my own words, personalization is creating something in your own taste that could satisfy you in content. This could pertain to personalizing something online, such as your Facebook profile, or something physical, such as a pair of jeans. Professionally, the term is defined as an action of designing or producing something in order to meet an individual’s requirements. The term does not only coincide with the obvious definition of creation, but could be stemmed into four different languages: to take something personally, to personalize, personal property, and to be personal.
4 Languages
Personalization could be understood in four different languages: ‘to take something personally,’ to ‘personalize,’ ‘personal property,’ and to be ‘personal.’ ‘To take something personally’ is to perform an action that affects the individual. For example, during an argument, whether it be online or in person, one party is able to ‘personally’ take offense to something that is said by the other party. The form of personalization in this sense is understood in emotional terms. To ‘personalize’ is another form of action but benefits the individual. It is defined to mark something in order to indicate that it belongs to a certain individual but could also mean to change in consent to preference. This is understood in the creative sense of the keyword, which is often what is believed to be the appropriate definition. ‘Personal property’ is pertaining to an item or literal property that belongs to the individual, often legally. ‘Personal,’ as a noun, is an individual reflecting on an individual’s needs. “As Raymond Williams noted in his entry on personality, the cognates of personal relate to individual “character” that is both “outward sign” and “yet internalized as a possession”” (Ricker Schulte 243).
Personalization in Technology
Personalization is greatly associated with technology. Without it, the personal computer would not exist. My own definition of this is a device that contains an individual’s information, from pictures to documents and saved passwords. The professional definition of a personal computer could be defined as “a compact computer that uses a microprocessor and is designed for individual use” (dictionary “personal computer”). The benefits of a personal computer, or PC for short, is its capacity for storage, the ability to communicate with friends and family, and associating it with education and work. The four languages of personalization could be tied onto the PC:
1. The device itself is a ‘personal property’ because it contains your passwords and important documents.
2. Being able to ‘personalize’ the device with an individual’s own preferences and settings such as the display screen, applications, the language, and the content added onto it.
3. The action of ‘taking something personally’ is experienced through social media apps, which could be accessed through the device.
4. ‘Personal,’ as a noun, could be tied onto the personalized content shown on the individual’s regularly visited websites. This is where digital marketers benefit from personalization with PC’s.
Have you often wondered how the advertisements you see as you surf the web are from recent sites you’ve been to? This is the work of digital marketers using personalization on your PC. They try to copy the sites you have visited and have been shopping in and try to use them as advertisements so you could potentially go back to that site. From the perspective of a digital marketer, personalization is “tuning and adjusting your brand’s messages on any digital platform to the preferences of a particular user or customer” (Shur 2018). Advertisements on your PC are personalized by these marketers that keep track of the sites you often go to, so the owner of the PC could only receive ads that pertain to their own ‘personal’ interests and tastes rather than the annoying ones that show content unrelated to who you are.
Personalization and Social Media
Social media would not be as diverse and popular as it is now without the use of personalization. Personalization in social media allows marketers to learn our interests and hobbies in order to ‘personalize’ the ads we see as we scroll down through our social media feed. Social platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. all have methods of personalization that allows its users to see what they prefer on their feed. For example, when you first sign up for Twitter, you are directed to a step of following your preferred interests of topics, celebrities and hobbies as a starter for using the app. “The key characteristics of social media is that they are based on users having accounts or profiles through which they can ‘friend’ or follow each other, and that content can be liked/favourited, commented, and shared” (Lindgren 41). Users are also able to personalize their friends list with features such as blocking unwanted users and selecting close friends on apps such as Instagram where you are able to share stories only with the designated close friends. Social Media platforms such as Facebook also use personalization to create home videos that are shared to its users on their birthdays or when you make a year of friendship with the people on your friends list. In terms of personalization, Facebook collects the data in your profile as well as past commentary made on your birthday from a year ago in order to create the video that you first get to see once you open the Facebook app on your birthday. If there is any social media app that revolves around personalization, I believe it would be Facebook because of all the information it contains from all the personalizing that it provides for its users to fill in so as to create their own community of friends.
Customization vs. Personalization
Personalization and customization are often thought to mean the same thing. These two words are sure to be closely related, yet the concept of each are distinct. “Customization is reactive; personalization is predictive” (Ricker Schulte 248), or in other words, personalization is for me while customization is by me. What I understand from this is that customization has more to do with the creative part of social media for example, such as the background color or templates you are given to set up on your Tumblr account or the highlights you can add onto your Instagram profile. Personalization is more of the behind the scenes of social media where you, or companies within the social app, control things that others outside cannot see, like your friends list or whether you want your account private or public. In terms of digital marketing, the only thing they could do within social media platforms would be to utilize the action of ‘personalizing’ content such as advertisements and sponsorships into the user’s social media feed, but they cannot utilize the action of customizing, since that is performed ‘by’ the user. The actions of customization are solely performed by the individual, but personalization could be used by both the individual and digital marketers in two different senses.
Personalization and Other Keywords
Within the volume of keywords, edited by Benjamin Peters, Personalization is able to fit in with other keywords such as Community, Culture, and Sharing. These keywords are tied onto personalization as an action. “Many social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace are primarily “intentional communities” wherein self-selection into the platform and mutual “friending” secure one’s place” (Avance 66). Personalization in this sense allows the user to create their community within the social media platform. Digital marketers are able to observe the user’s followed and following community in order to provide ‘personalized’ content in sponsorship and advertisements. Social media platforms ‘personalize’ their system as well for user’s to be able to build onto their community, “other venues, like Twitter and blogs, involve asymmetric relationships, wherein one user may be “followed” without following back” (Avance 66). Personalization affects the way culture revolves around the user. “Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these groups” (Tylor 1871; Wikipedia). An individual is able to ‘personalize’ their content that appears on their social media feed, therefore creating their own ‘personal’ culture. Sharing is basically what social media is all about. It is what is often done in social networking sites, “the name given to the act of distributing data through electronic networks” (A. John 270), and is only possible because of personalization. Creators of these social media apps were able to ‘personalize’ their systems with features such as sharing to be able to create their own cultures and form communities around them. These keywords are all basically intertwined with each other but each keyword has their own role when it comes to our digital society.
Personalization Today
Personalization in today’s industry is heavily revolved around us and is accessible through all platforms that most of us use every day. Now that the internet has evolved, people are reading less physical and more digital. With this, we are able to ‘personalize’ the content we want to see on our digital subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. We are also able to ‘personalize’ the amount of e-mails we would like to receive in a week as well as what apps on our mobile devices we want to notify us and at what specific times we would like a reminder. Personalization is basically what we as the consumer and they as the seller use to communicate with each other. Because our community is turning digital, companies outside are adjusting, or ‘personalizing’ their content in order for consumers to have easier access and would be able to include the activity within their daily lives. It is possible that if, for example, The New York Times did not have a digital subscription online, consumers would most likely choose not to be associated with them and would be in search of another news platform. As we grow more into the digital era, more do consumers as well as companies turn to personalization for a better and faster digital experience.
Conclusion
Personalization is defined in a variety of ways and could be understood differently when it comes to the individual user and the company. Personalization could be stemmed into four different languages which defines the keyword as something that could be used and individuals are able to associate themselves with in four different ways: to take something ‘personally,’ to ‘personalize,’ ‘personal property,’ and to be ‘personal.’ Users are able to utilize personalization within their social media apps by choosing what they want others to see and what kind of settings they’d like to provide for a better and easier experience online. Companies and digital marketers selling their brand use personalization within social media apps in order to communicate with the consumer and provide the content that the user wishes to see in contrast to seeing advertisements or sponsors that are unrelated to the user’s interest and hobbies. The keyword is often confused with customization, but could be separated from the definition by understanding that customization is performed only by the user while personalization is performed by companies and other selling brands in order to spread their content to the user. In today’s society, personalization is what we will likely depend upon in order to experience the full array of social media and other kinds of online digital apps, building relationships not only with friends and family but with our work place and company sellers. The true definition of personalization is understood from the root word ‘personal,’ content that is given to you in a ‘personalized’ or fixed way that only satisfies you.
References
Avance, Rosemary. “6. Community.” Digital Keywords, 2016, pp. 63–69., doi:10.1515/9781400880553–008.
“Culture.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture#cite_note-tyor1871–1.
John, Nicholas A. “24. Sharing.” Digital Keywords, 2016, pp. 269–277., doi:10.1515/9781400880553–026.
Lindgren, Simon. Digital Media and Society. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017.
McKay, Stafford. “What Is Personalization? (and Why It Needs a New Word).” Reflektion, 8 July 2015, reflektion.com/personalization-word.
“Personal Computer.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/personal-computer.
President, Lev Shur. “Technology and Personalization in 2019.” MarTech Advisor, www.martechadvisor.com/articles/interactive-marketing/technology-and-personalization-in-2019/.
Schulte, Stephanie Ricker. “22. Personalization.” Digital Keywords, 2016, pp. 242–255., doi:10.1515/9781400880553–024.
