Do y'all have Netflix accounts? Do y'all rate movies on Netflix and pay attention to the recommendations it gives you?
Because I do.
And shit just got crazy specific.
These are the types of movies that Netflix thinks I would be interested in:
-Revenge Thrillers From the 1970s
-Dark Movies Starring Robert DeNiro
-Exciting Independent Dramas
-Critically-acclaimed Cerebral Comedies
-Visually-striking Mind-bending Foreign Movies
GAH HOLY SHIT GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!
I'm not sure how I feel about this. One the one hand, it's very accurate and gives me useful recommendations. On the other hand, it's so accurate that it's unnerving. My personal preferences can be deconstructed by a computer program that knows me better than I do, and it's not even human. It makes me feel inhuman. Plus, it makes me look like a total pretentious douchebag. "Critically-acclaimed Cerebral Comedies?" Who am I, Jeff Daniels in "The Squid & the Whale?"
Another issue here is consumer surveillance. Netflix is collecting data on me and storing it away, keeping tabs on my activity. A corporation knows me personally. In order to get this special service, I have to give more of my privacy away. I've given Netflix access to both my bank account and my mind.
My question is: where do y'all draw the line between getting cool products and becoming a drop in the sea of information?
1 comment:
CYBORG! CYBORG ALERT!
But seriously, I'll let the Internet get all up in my business if they remind me to rent things like the Supernatural season one finale for Weekend and Bernie's 2. What's the worst they could do with the info? Recommend Blonde Ambition as a cruel joke? We're all cyborgs anyways, just nodes on the network as Donna Haraway says, so we might as well get all the perks.
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