Isn’t it funny how much we want to give recommendations, and how little we want to receive them? At a gathering of friends, the conversation inevitably shifts to what’s great on [insert streaming service here]. We can’t WAIT to tell someone about this show that just cannot be missed. We listen with courtesy at their recommendations, but they’re mostly in one ear and out the other. We’re just waiting for them to stop talking so we can talk about our thing.
In fact, once we encounter the rare someone who is genuinely interested in what we have to say, we latch onto them. It’s such a novelty to find someone who wants to listen more than they want to suggest.
But if we’re not listening to recommendations (at least not directly) how do we find out what works and what doesn’t?
The algorithms driving recommendations on these services are increasingly usurping our own social networks in telling us what is and isn’t worth watching.
And it’s not just happening on Netflix. The books we read, the technology we buy, they’re all increasingly motivated by the machine’s recommendations rather that the people around us.
But if you only let the algorithm decide, you’re pretty likely to find something you already like. This is the whole value of the algorithm. It’s weakness, though is uncovering the stuff you don’t like yet. Without a more organic form of recommendation and ideas, we never consider novel alternatives. Stuff we’d never have considered ourselves, but that we might be willing to take a leap with the right prodding.
Maybe instead of trying so hard to find that person who will listen to us, we ought to try and be that person instead.