Personalized Content and the Dilemma of Isolation
“When will we realize that the fact that we can become accustomed to anything, however disgusting at first, makes it necessary to examine carefully everything we have become accustomed to.” — George Bernard Shaw
Inspired by the evolution of personalization of our feed and thus, our experiences online, I can't help but wonder what is the universal implication and how far can we go with this phenomenon.
What is personalized content?
By its simplest definition — personalized content is the content that is tailored to align with your digital interests’ history (data). To elaborate, your digital habits are captured and a sophisticated algorithm then twists and caters to you, your personalized news-feed, ads, videos, and so on.
So where is the fundamental problem?
I see three facets of it, as below:
The fundamental problem at the Business level:
The problem lies in the assumption that by catering to the interest of a person, marketers are appealing to her more. While this is true in terms of our quantifiable goals of MAUs, DAUs, Revenue, and such; we fail to realize that over time the interested parties can become not-so-interested.
More so due to the current wave of digital platforms and reducing attention span of people, generation-to-generation. What happens when the data reaches the new era of what we classify as “Dynamic”? What if these Dynamics (as all in touch with the digital marketing inside story know) that we count on are changing rapidly? What if before our systems captured the data and the algorithm catered the content, the recipient has already “Moved On”?
One relevant example is suggestions in Amazon that piles on even after you have already purchased the article of interest and now are no longer in the market for it.
This begs the question now that, what is the future of this tailor-made personalized content then?
The fundamental problem at an Existential level:
Depression as we know is proliferating throughout the world. While I wouldn’t blame the digital revolution for all of it but more and more studies are linking the two.
The core issue with digital and real life is that it feeds into the duality of human minds. Makes it more sparse, rather than unified. Creates more confusion. It makes sense to assume that when we already struggle to find our bearing in the physical world, finding your true self in the exorbitantly convoluted virtual world can be oh! so exhausting. Given the basic nature of the human mind, the curiosity is expanded but at the same time, the limitations of the same (Ignorance) are expanded too. Ignorance is expanded due to consuming the content within what I’d like to call — the walls of one’s interests.
To make my point clear, as marketers we want to serve our specific audiences and these audiences are interested in the content we are serving. Win-win right? Umm, not quite. Zooming out to the bigger picture, the personalization of data is coming from a handful of Digital Advertising agencies and/or giant data warehouses. These companies have similar algorithms to classify an audience and limited categories.
While these are a handful of companies, as a subject within an audience the consumer is only one. She’s probably classified in similar categories in all databases, therefore consuming similar content throughout the www. The basic reaction of being challenged in the neurons is a spark, spark of excitement, which is constantly missing. Hence, lands the depression.
(Used simple language for effect plus I’m no expert who can explain the complexities of depression but talking about the neurotransmitters, which affect mood and inactivity of which trigger depression. Refer to this awesome article for detailed info :)
The fundamental problem at the Humanitarian level:
The world is more divided now than ever. We are seeing it everywhere. Society is splitting into more and more fragments. This fragmented human society is conflicting with the root of our evolution as a species. Humans have always had differences of opinions and they have always progressed despite them.
One basic rule of thumb for a civilized society is to accept the differences and coexist harmoniously beyond them. Before this digital era, we lived in an age of what I see as — “Accumulation Age”. Everyone was in a hurry to get rich, get there fast. Highly materialistic of times. Because of which we see that the economic inequality overall is bipolar at this point.
Since there is an argument for the digital revolution taking us to Abundance, we as humans need to raise the bar for tolerance. Intolerance is an abundance blocker. Hope we all can agree that abundance can only flourish when there is universal uplifting. Uplifting of our beliefs, our ideals, our thoughts, and thus, our lifestyles.
These fragments of modern society are widened and become more hardwired when we are constantly consuming, sharing, and thinking about our existing ideology. The open-minded thought process and flexible perception are what could facilitate faster turn around towards “Universal Abundance”.
Sadly, however, the increasing struggle between maintaining a certain personality physically and on the other hand exploring possibilities beyond the norms virtually brings with it an inherent misery. The misery of finding who you are at a deeper, profound level. The source of your identity — the True Self within.
As a result, the same content that is served to us to find like-minded people and feel less alone counter-intuitively pushes us towards isolation.
So what does it all mean?
It means that the entire ecosystem needs to be made more mindful. Mindful of what we create, what we deliver, what we consume, what we share, what we register, and what we perceive. This is possible only with universal literacy. Not in terms of the intellectual mind, but in terms of our deeper selves by promoting awareness drives and elevating our collective consciousness.
“The only revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.” — Ariel & Will Durant
PS: I had written this article back in July 2018 and it’s been sitting in my Keep since. After watching Social Dilemma on Netflix last weekend decided it was time to put it out there. While the similar arguments are presented with more depth in docu-drama style there, my write-up has a spiritual connection to the whole dilemma at the end. I believe might be the only way to enable mass awareness.
Would appreciate comments, critique & basically any kind of feedback. Thanks for reading! ❤
