Internet personalization is a problem
Filtering can limit choices and discovery
FOSTER CITY, Calif. – A key tenet of the modern internet is customization to match your interests because, well, who wouldn’t want that? Instead of being a benefit, however, personalization is starting to look like a curse.
Probably the most glaring example comes via sites that filter your news feeds based on other articles you’ve previously clicked on. The beauty and wonder of the internet is that it col- lects virtually every news source and bit of information ever created into a single repository. Sites such as Facebook or Twitter and mobile apps such as Apple News start limiting the amount of information you can see in their environments as soon as you start interacting with the stories they first present.
Suddenly, the limitless resources of the internet become a filtered set of choices that are more tightly controlled than random interactions in the analog world.
The result is the echo chambers of information that show people only news stories that they’re interested in or reflect their personal point of view. Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, that’s just not healthy
from a societal perspective.
Of course, this was never the intention of the tech companies that started these services and built these applications, but we all know where roads paved with good intentions lead. Leaders of companies such as such as Twitter and Facebook have been grappling with the fallout from the personalization mechanisms they’ve created.
The customization problem extends well beyond news. In fact, probably the most annoying aspect of browsing the web is personalized ads. You research a product or buy something online and practically every website you visit shows you an ad for that product. It’s supposed to be “customized,” but it’s creepy.
Again, the concept behind these efforts is the seemingly reasonable idea of delivering ads that are uniquely tailored to your interests instead of a general message to a general audience. The reality appears to be backfiring.
Even music streaming services such as Spotify apply customization through features such as Discover that are designed to present you with music the service believes you will like. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it still is a type of filtering and limits access to more choices.
Of course, the argument in this case – and in the case of innumerable other sites and apps that offer personalized recommendations – is that they’re helping you reduce an overwhelming range of options to a more manageable few.
However, they can also remove the joys of serendipity, when you accidentally stumble on a great new artist, restaurant, news source or other product or service that you might not have otherwise found.
Customization and personalization also can limit the impact of educated judgment. In the case of news sources, there’s a reason that most editors work hard to provide a more balanced set of stories but also a reason there are multiple news sources that reflect different sets of perspectives. No perfect judging or rating system for news exists, and human biases do occur. Rather than fearing that, we should be celebrating a broad spectrum of ideas and perspectives – or at least trying to understand them. In all areas, there is real value in finding thoughtful, reliable sources of information that integrate a variety of experiences and expertise into their material.
In the online world, customization and personalization features represent a dual-edged technological sword. They aren’t inherently bad, but they can be used in very limiting ways. Given our growing dependence on the internet for virtually everything we think, buy and do, we need to be conscious of those potential challenges. Some degree of personalization is clearly valuable, but automated customization can be taken too far. Instead of forcing us into narrowly focused cones of interest, we need more technologies that can expose us all to a wider range of choices.
Bob O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm.