I guess you could as the same question of any number of our social networking feeds. Technology is no longer driven by conscious choices that we make but instead guided by a complex set of algorithms that learn from our behavior and our patterns of behavior. I’ve heard of these algorithms being used on social media platforms but after carefully looking over my google newsfeed I can make a fairly confident assertions that there are algorithms in play here as well.
Let’s break down my newsfeed for a minute. First up, at the top of the page, blog posts from the trek.co. This is a website dedicated to hiking, hiking culture, etc. I read a lot of blog posts on thetrek.co written by hikers who are currently hiking, or contemplating hiking, trails such as the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail, as well as others. I’ve been reading a number of books on hiking these trails, specifically section hiking as opposed to thru hiking. Section hiking is when you break up the trail into smaller sections and eventually hike the entire trail over a number of hiking excursions. Thru hiking is when you hike the entirety of the trail in one expedition. Thru hiking can take some hikers 6 months or more to complete.
So, it would seem Google knows of my interest in hiking!
I’m going to skip over the Celebwell article with a headline pertaining to Jennifer Aniston in a swimming suit because I can’t even comprehend how an algorithm picked that as “suggested” for me. I don’t think I’ve ever searched for content related to Jennifer Aniston. Not that she’s not a lovely person, but my interests lie elsewhere.
Next down the line is a CNN article with updates about Jamie Foxx’s recent medical condition. So, recently, I have been interested in Jamie Foxx because I just listened to the Tim Ferris podcast episode where he interviewed Jamie Foxx over the span of a few hours. To be honest, I originally planned to skip the episode because I wasn’t really interested in Jamie Foxx but I’m glad I gave it a chance because it was probably one of my favorite episodes thus far. Jamie was funny, insightful and just so very talented.
Further down the feed is an article on Kevin Costner and his pending divorce. I attribute this to the Tim Ferris podcast as well (not the divorce, just that a Kevin Costner related article in in my newsfeed). His was another very good interview although I’ve read some recent news reports that don’t gel with the person portrayed in the podcast.
Back up towards the top of the feed there’s a new article about Disney World and their ongoing battler with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. I read an article this morning related to this conflict as well. Apparently, the Governor has signed a bill that would give the Florida Department of Transportation the power to oversee and inspect Disney World transportation (monorails, ferries, etc). Disney has successfully managed their modes of transportation for more than 30 years. The Disney trained staff are probably more capable of identifying and rectifying problem with Disney vehicles than are employees of the state of Florida. Based on what I read this morning, it appears the Governor wrote this bill with language used to specifically target Disney World because he is angry that they don’t share is position on LGBTQ issues.
It should be noted that there is another Disney related article further down my newsfeed.
Next up is an article about the war in Ukraine. I have been interested in this off and on so it could be on the newsfeed as a result of some searches I’ve conducted previously but it’s also a pretty big topic, globally so maybe it’s just there as a result of it’s significance in the world.
Further down the list are another four posts from from thetrek.co as well as an article about someone taking on the Appalachian Trail to raise awareness for drug addiction.
There is an article about Taylor Swift. I mean, who doesn’t love Taylor? She also features very prominently on my TikTok feed.
I am an avid reader. I read a lot of different types of things. I honestly feel that reading makes me smarter. It makes me think more and improves my vocabulary. Recently, there was an article about Brandon Sanderson. Brandon Sanderson is a prolific writer of science fiction novels. His books have been on my “to-read” list, I just haven’t gotten there yet. The first article I read was a response to a separate article that was written in a way that was not overly complimentary to Mr. Sanderson. However, my reading of those articles lead the algorithm to populate my feed with another article showing Brandon Sanderson’s underground lair. You heard me right! He has an underground lair like a supervillain! Check it out here!
So, to answer the original question, it does in fact seem that Google’s algorithm’s know me pretty well. I’m really not all that surprised by these findings but I do still find it interesting how spot on it is. How do you feel about technology learning you behavior and behavior patterns and then making recommendations based on those pattern?
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