Deontec

Personalisation

The dominance of the Tech Giants is often attributed to their use of data to personalise their products. Be it ads, media, or product recommendations, tech companies' ability to tailor their content to our individual preferences is arguably what gives them such an edge over non-tech companies.

This post is about personalised content and why I think it's a bad thing. By "content", I mean media and entertainment: news, music, films, tv shows, books, articles, games etc. I'm not anti-personalisation in all contexts - personalised medicine, for instance, would be transformative - but when it comes to content, I am.

Why do I think that personalised content is a bad thing? For two reasons.

First, because personalisation is constraining. It limits your exposure to ideas and experiences. Platforms that serve personalised content typically try to predict what you'll like based on content you've enjoyed in the past and then just serve you more of the same. But there is inherent value in being exposed to a wide variety of content. We may discover that we enjoy some music that's quite different from music we've enjoyed in the past; we may come to see an issue from a completely different perspective from perspectives we've considered in the past; we may come across a new and interesting idea in a domain that we've never even heard of before. A varied diet of content is more interesting and produces more interesting individuals.

The second reason I think personalised content is a bad thing is because it reduces the potential for shared experiences. People are different, so when content is personalised, each person experiences different things. But if we're not watching the same tv shows as our friends, how can we discuss the latest plot twists? If we're not listening to the same music as our friends, how can we all sing along when our favourite song plays at a party? We can't. Without shared experiences, there can be no culture. We won't have the same reference points; we'll be disconnected. And that's pretty sad.