They've ruined the experience of discovering new things for us.
I have been using Spotify as my main music app for years. What I liked most about it was the ability to discover artists and genres that I wasn’t used to listening to, or that I didn’t know about directly.
I would browse its playlists in search of a freshness that I no longer found in the music I was listening to at the time.
Although I never lived in that era, I suppose it was a feeling similar to going to a record store and bringing home a band you didn’t know, and after hearing them for the first time, you couldn’t stop listening.
When I say I liked it in the past, it’s for a reason.
In recent years, recommendation algorithms have become very good at suggesting what we consume frequently. And the same applies to Spotify as it does to any social network.
And it’s precisely in that exhaustive optimization where their biggest mistake lies: they’ve ruined the experience of discovering new things for us.
I’m not one to believe that we should like everything, nor do I think we have to try everything in life. There isn’t enough time. But encouraging our curiosity makes us feel more alive almost automatically. Because we all remain children at heart; it’s just that some have forgotten it.
The number one rule for being curious is to be open to new experiences. To new ideas. To possible changes.
And in that regard, the Internet was king.
Infinite information from home for all the curious souls. A thread you could pull that would lead you to incredible places. An unbridled freedom that opened up before you for a modest monthly price.
Access to the Internet was the gateway to new jobs, new projects, and new friendships—all driven by curiosity.
But nowadays, all of that is gone, and it has become boring.
The algorithms are so focused on recommending the same songs, the same videos, and the same ideas that they have truly forgotten the most important thing: to show you what you aren’t used to. To make you see/listen to/be interested in what you never thought you would like.
Because without that, everything becomes monotonous. To grow, we need to expose ourselves to things we know nothing about. Or things we don’t agree with. Because to be sure we have a clear idea, we need to confront it with those that are contrary.
Now we all live in a bubble of monotony, and that is very sad. Because it truly requires a huge effort to get out of that bubble. A constant search for what makes us feel uncomfortable. And not everyone has the same time or energy for that.
I wish I could say that one day browsing YouTube will be exciting again. That browsing Spotify will be a festival of new sounds. That reading Twitter will generate a healthy debate of opposing ideas.
But I’m quite pessimistic.
All we have left is to turn to what has always been unpredictable: nature and relationships.
It seems there’s no choice but to go back to that record store and choose a band at random without the help of an algorithm.
To go to that bookstore and ask the bookseller for an author they like, without checking to see if it aligns with the latest Twitter thread from some guru who recommended the 10 books you should read to succeed in life.
To go to that restaurant and stop looking at Google to see if the thousand reviews created by bots are worth stepping foot in that place. Because in the end, it doesn’t matter; what’s important is the company. There’s no 5-star place that can endure having an idiot by your side.
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