The Curation Funnel
JULY 25TH, 2016 — POST 203
In opening up The Atlantic homepage this morning, I was greeted by the kind of banner ad I’m likely to click on: a “how are we doing?”-type survey. Even journalistic institutions like The Atlantic need to know how, why, and — crucially when faced with the social News Feed — where they’re being read. Interesting to me was one of the options in the “how we can do better” question. The option, presented alongside things like “expand coverage in my region”, “invite me to private forums”, was something like “provide me with suggestions that are tailored to me”. I had to catch my reflex from selecting it — it’s a reflex that has been conditioned by the internet-powered content channel. And the fact that a desire for personalised curation is so reflexive should prompt pause for thought.
The concept of personalised or user-specific curation is fundamental to the majority of content delivery channels in 2016. Netflix will automatically suggest additions to part of the app called “My List”. Apple Music has an entire pane of the app labelled “For You”. And Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and just about anything even social adjacent constantly prompts you with things you might like — whether people to follow or specific pieces of content that “others like you” are engaging with. Whilst Apple Music took a principled stand at launch to assert its use of human curators, for the most part these suggestions are built by algorithms. The use of a service — often through quantitative measure like rating, hearting, “Liking” — allows the service to generate a user’s avatar — by my search results alone, for example, Google knows I’m an Australian male, between 18–25 and uses that avatar to assist in serving me ads. With so much stuff to get through (news, TV, movies, music), there’s a real benefit to having computers on your side to help with the sorting.
The impulse that craves curation is a slightly manic one, however. Implicit in wanting a user-specific content feed is a desire to have every moment of consumption saturated with enjoyment. We don’t want to be bored, to watch bad TV, to waste time on anything but the very best. Even the mediocre won’t sate. No, we need the equivalent of a pure opioid syrup. This impulse feeds off and fuels the algorithm — we show it what we like and it gives us more right back. Outside this hyperbolic characterisation of the content consumer, the fundamental problem with the user-specific curation funnel should be self-evident: it can only be constructed of what a user has liked. No wonder its capacity to project what you will like can often feel so jarring. Netflix, do you even know me?
The curation funnel, then, funnels the user as much as it does content. And its efficiency only increases with use. The more a user prescribes to the recommendations of an algorithm, the more that algorithm pushes them into a discrete box. Daniel, you watched The Office so you will like Special Correspondents so you will then like The Ridiculous 6. The scope of a whole service can become seemingly narrowed as the yes-man, the digital mollycoddler, just tries to keep you happy. Listen to a bunch of Lil Kim and Notorious B.I.G on Apple Music and suddenly all the service seems to be is a repository of late-1990s hip hop. The curation funnel helps you to bed, tucks you in, puts your plush toys of your past alongside, and leaves the night light on, so long as you just keep paying your subscription.
The services that instantiate the curation funnel are then built to be amiable, pleasant, unobtrusive, but seldom loved. They force users inward, to be served content instead of exposed to content. They are an extension of the internet’s inherent cultural segregation and tribalism, a mechanical implementation of echo-chamber phenomena like those seen in subreddits, Facebook groups, or factions of Twitter. They corrode progress in telling you everything you could ever want is everything you ever have wanted, legitimising stagnation. You don’t need to be more well-rounded, better informed, or just better. The curation funnel wants you just as you are and wants you to never change.
But is that what you want?
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