Freedom of choice, sang Devo, is what you got. Freedom from choice is what you want. Today, we humans of the most privileged generation in human history, have almost unlimited choice in almost everything. Supermarkets bring us the bounty of the world, in every season. Smart TVs and tablet computers offer us almost any entertainment we can imagine in an instant.
Yet the more freedom we have to choose, the more we are surrendering (or being denied) the ability to choose.
Based on titles you’ve recently viewed or clicked on, Netflix uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create a customized viewing experience catered specifically to your personal preferences[…based on] your past viewing and browsing behaviors.
Even when scrolling through your social media newsfeed, you will inevitably find content that is tailored to your occupation, your political affiliation, your geographic location, your hobbies, your search history and even your conversations with others.
But, while it might seem convenient for so-called “AI” to offer us choices based on previous choices, is that really what we want? As children we might have eaten, say, macaroni and cheese once and wanted to eat nothing else but. But is that really what we want as adults? Just because you might like Star Wars, does that mean you want to watch nothing but space operas, for all eternity?
Companies such as Amazon, Netflix and Facebook are incentivized to use algorithms to create a personalized experience for users so that they are inclined to visit the sites more often and stay on them longer. Users might enjoy the convenience of being presented with items they are likely to enjoy rather than having to search from scratch.
However, the incredible ease masks the long-term negative effects to which such a high degree of customization can contribute.
Recently, I watched the film Moonlight, because my youngest had to watch it for a university English class. On paper, it was definitely not the sort of film I’d normally be interested in – and it was an entirely pleasant surprise. A beautifully made human drama which thoroughly deserved its Best Picture win.
So, while it is understandable that we often prize convenience above choice, choice can surprise us with unexpected delight. To seek new experience is even more human than convenience. More importantly, the human quest for the novel and unexpected is what so often drives our social and cultural evolution. Denying choice, then, stunts human nature.
Marina Gorbis, executive director of the Institute for the Future, said, “Every time we program our environments, we end up programming ourselves and our interactions. Humans have to become more standardized, removing serendipity and ambiguity from our interactions. And this ambiguity and complexity is what is the essence of being human.”
How we interpret the world is determined by what we see on a regular basis, and that, in turn, influences the world around us. Being shown content that is similar to what we’ve enjoyed in the past almost guarantees that we will continue to engage with the same messages over and over again. It does not give us a chance to challenge our ways of thinking by exposing ourselves to content with which we might not agree.
In news and social media especially, “tailored content” is grossly destructive to the public sphere. Stephen Crowder made this argument forcefully in 2016 and few have ever said it better. We see the devastating effect of such echo-chamber mentality in the plethora of videos of “liberals” screaming in incoherent rage and fear when merely confronted with different opinions.
Having news content catered only to one’s personal and political views presents a skewed image of the world and leads to the creation of “mini bubbles,” which serve to polarize and divide us even more than we already are.
What’s more, being presented with options based on what we’ve already seen and liked is limiting in that it does not allow us to branch out and discover other potentially interesting options that we might enjoy. Lack of exposure leads to missed opportunities to explore new interests, hobbies, people and places[…]
Unfulfilled human potential seems like a high price to pay for a few minutes saved.
So, make the effort to explore undiscovered country. Pick a book or movie at random and try an unfamiliar food. More importantly, read a news site or blog that offers opinions you despise.
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