Enough about me..
As noted in this quarter’s digital pulse survey, Australians are growing increasingly comfortable with sharing personal information online. And frankly, even if they weren’t, their behaviour is being secretly tracked anyway so the result is a mass of data about your personal life floating in the ether.
This may horrify those who are inclined to paranoia, and indeed there is much contention around this issue globally, but I don’t personally have a problem with this in itself – what I really object to however is the end commercial use of this information: tailored content!
Apparently two thirds of Americans agree with me (according to a survey reported in the NY Times last year) but for different reasons. While the Americans object to privacy infringement and sneaky advertising behaviour, I find it significantly more objectionable to be funneled into a world where I will only encounter content that has been pre-selected to appeal to my profile.
Why do advertisers think that preaching to the converted will return the most interest? The notion of it fills me with instant boredom (with myself!) and the prospect of functioning in a me-shaped silo is claustrophobic in its self-perpetuating affirmation. A deeper context is well captured by Marshall Kilpatrick when he writes that ‘personalized media is bad for the soul’, “it leads to self re-enforcing political perspectives, unchecked extremism, a shortage of empathy, stunted learning about the world and a weak democracy.”
You won’t even know when you are being subjected to this panderage, you will simply think that your taste is uncannily on trend and your opinions aligned with the mainstream. The worst thing is of course that others will think the same of their clearly wrong opinions and dreadful taste!
So, I would love to know if you have recommendations; is there a way to narrow content without narrowing minds? When is targeting evil and when is it meaningful?
