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AMY SMITH LINTON

Recommendation Engines

12/19/2017

4 Comments

 
Picture
Social media.

Social medium.

Sometimes it 
does seem like a carnival trick: the interwebs and their logarithms churn through the ghostly trail of clicks I left in the ether and produces –– eh voila! –– customized marketing offers.

Amazon makes suggestions based on my recent browsing history.

For instance, if I liked those peculiar clunky European health sandals, perhaps I would like to see these other hideous shoe options?

​In a word: almost never. Thanks anyhow!
​


One friend takes advantage of this Amazonian quirk by logging in as his bride and then not-so-idly perusing dirty adult playthings.

​Her next shopportunity is marked by vocal outrage and hilarity.

In a Gibsonian twist, this kooky effort to lure customers to buy more is all math; it's called a recommendation engine. I imagine it puff-puff-puffing trying to get up the hill.  (P.S., yes, I know he's Canadian.)

Facebook's friend suggestion of the month came with an unremarkable name and a North Country photo. I looked at it for a solid minute, thinking, really? Could it be? The boy who rode my school-bus all those years ago? The ricketty kid who captured flies against the smeared windows of Mrs. Gamble's Bluebird and ate their fresh-plucked wings in what may have been an attempt to impress the girls on the bus?  In truth, it did leave an impression.

​Again, wow, thanks anyhow!

And don't get me started on the social media's version of "news."

Oh, heckydoodle, it's too late...Believe that when you see another outrageous story about <fill in the heinous-mingus blank> it's not necessarily happening more often.  
​
Perhaps, once upon a cyber time, you clicked and paused for a nanosecond longer on a story in a similar vein. The recommendation engines chug on.
Fer instance, say, based on your engagement with topics like Zionist conspiracies and homosexual conversion camps, the interwebs figure you will probably gobble up an article about lizardy globalists controlling the weather*.

Whereas in a reasonable** world, you should be sent directly to a discussion of 
Hanlon's Razor. 

​
(*No links because, duh.)
​

(**That is, a world organized by me. Which is ironic, since recommendation engines try to sculpt a world to my taste. By way of my pocketbook. Full of ugly shoes and strange neighbors from my past. Sigh.)
​

Want to avoid such nonsense? Don't click on salacious material. Be suspicious. Use a private window when browsing.

And bone up on the basics, like this story on National Public Radio:
​

"Learning to Spot Fake News Starts with a Gut Check" by Anya Kamenetz
​
Picture

Gah, what a tangled interweb have we wrought.  Here's me avoiding it.
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4 Comments
George A.
12/19/2017 03:19:38 pm

Blogspot visits, at least for now, seem to be terra incognita for the recommendation engines. Lord only knows what would be recommended for pausing at either of my blogs--maybe weird dinghy boots---or skate boots! A few hours in most skate boots and those ugly health sandals will start looking like a good idea (said the man wearing Birkenstocks as he heads off for an ice dance lesson.

Reply
Amy
1/12/2018 12:58:45 pm

Doesn't Birkenstock MAKE an ice skate?

Reply
George A.
1/12/2018 01:27:21 pm

HAHA! Not likely. Birkies and Skate boots are polar opposites. Birkenstocks are all about love and tolerance and flat-footed comfort. Skate boots are more about mimicking Medieval torture devises in a lame footed quest for adequate support. Skate boots are what got me looking at Birkenstocks in the first place. For years I'd shied away, operating under the notion that Birkenstocks were weird, expensive and elitist. But then I pitched myself back into figure skating and soon had a Podiatrist on my phone contact list. Not long after, got my first/current pair (they wear like iron) on deep discount. Yeah, they're double ugly in ways that make clogs look like Manolo Blahniks, which no doubt helped the price point--but oh soooo comfy!

Reply
Amy
1/15/2018 09:46:17 pm

Oooh, that's a bit disappointing. All those computers beetling away and the pieces have not yet come together: Birky-skates.

Reply



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