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A few hours ago I saw an advertisement for some Grey's Anatomy event called 'SOS'. I do not watch or care about the show so for me this was just useless noise, although I imagine it is intended to draw in curious and/or morbid new viewers. I am slightly curious about why Grey's Anatomy alone of all shows I know of has actual named events (which I call such because they remind me of housecleaning/ratings stunts the comics industry apparently pulls, and which seems best suited to a theoretically endless serialised drama) but mainly it reminded me of the way I (and, more obnoxiously, my sister's boyfriend) tell at unwanted/uninteresting promotions 'I don't care'.
Well, he is actually more likely to say 'who cares' in a way that suggests because he does not care for it he should not be seeing it. And so we come to the central thought of this posting, which is that, at least for now, it is not possible to target advertising only at people who are actually interested in the product. Search engines and other companies are trying to change that, though, logging data so they can shift what is displayed to be more relevant to the user's interests.
This can be useful because, well, you are getting a selection that is much more likely to appeal to you than a broader slice of what is out there would, but I also worry about falling into a sort of feedback loop. If the choices a person is presented with mostly resemble choices they have made in the past, then I think they are more likely to make the same choices in the future, even if they would have chosen something different if they had known it was available. It is like putting on blinkers and narrowing one's world and that scares me even if the world seen is a happier and more enjoyable one.
Relevant Egan story: Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies. I read this as being about the way humans fall into beliefs nudged by external forces, our trajectories not actually under our control - as well as the communication gap between different belief systems often making proselytism a futile if irresistible activity.
My reflexive stance is that we should not blinker our worlds and splinter into monolithic blocks with limited possibility for change or even mutual influence, but rather allow for an exposure to diverse viewpoints/experiences and, perhaps, the living of richer lives. At least we will have the illusion of choice*.
*In a different mood I may come down hard on such attitudes.
Well, he is actually more likely to say 'who cares' in a way that suggests because he does not care for it he should not be seeing it. And so we come to the central thought of this posting, which is that, at least for now, it is not possible to target advertising only at people who are actually interested in the product. Search engines and other companies are trying to change that, though, logging data so they can shift what is displayed to be more relevant to the user's interests.
This can be useful because, well, you are getting a selection that is much more likely to appeal to you than a broader slice of what is out there would, but I also worry about falling into a sort of feedback loop. If the choices a person is presented with mostly resemble choices they have made in the past, then I think they are more likely to make the same choices in the future, even if they would have chosen something different if they had known it was available. It is like putting on blinkers and narrowing one's world and that scares me even if the world seen is a happier and more enjoyable one.
Relevant Egan story: Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies. I read this as being about the way humans fall into beliefs nudged by external forces, our trajectories not actually under our control - as well as the communication gap between different belief systems often making proselytism a futile if irresistible activity.
My reflexive stance is that we should not blinker our worlds and splinter into monolithic blocks with limited possibility for change or even mutual influence, but rather allow for an exposure to diverse viewpoints/experiences and, perhaps, the living of richer lives. At least we will have the illusion of choice*.
*In a different mood I may come down hard on such attitudes.
