I want to search and find. Not be fed.

Struggle against algorithms

Adesh Acharya

--

Photo by Niklas Ohlrogge on Unsplash

There was a guy at the music store. Whenever I went to buy music, he said, ‘You will love this,’ and recommended CDs. I bought into his suggestions but when I went back home and listened, I hated most of it. For example, he suggested Backstreet Boys based on my liking for Blink 182 because he might have thought I liked boy groups who made pop music but what I liked in Blink 182 was not the pop but the punk.

There was another guy at the movie store. Whenever I went to rent movies, he would say, ‘You will love this,’ and suggest DVDs. I listened to him but when I went home and watched the movie, I hated it. For example, he suggested Titanic based on my renting of The Departed because he might have thought I liked Leonardo DiCaprio but what I liked in The Departed was the thrill.

There was a guy at the bookstore. Whenever I went to buy books, he would say, ‘You will worship this,’ and pull books out of the shelf and dust them off. Even though the cover/blurb/back cover shouted no, I trusted him. When I came home and read the first page, I wanted to throw the book and kill the guy. He suggested a book about Greece based on my previous purchase of Greek History but the reason I bought that book would be Greek philosophy.

--

--

No responses yet