Jay's Expose

We all go on them: tangents. When we share stories, when we teach lessons, when we talk about the latest news, tangents are an integral part of daily life and flow of conversations. Someone was paying attention in economics class when they decided that it may be a good idea to use this same principle and apply it to a business model that encourages people to explore items they may be interested in based on something else they enjoyed. This ranges from music to movies to online shopping and more. Now, there are numerous companies reaping enormous profit from this concept. From our reading, we discovered that this genius idea has a name: the long tail. When you go onto Netflix and get “Recommendations For You” this is an example of the long tail at work. On Spotify, it’s the same thing with “Your Daily Mix” which gives you songs they personally think you’d enjoy based on what you’ve previously listened to and on Amazon this model is employed when you see “Items You May Like”. It is wild to see how the stored data that is collected on personal users is used to make personalized experiences for people when they interact with websites. Have you ever noticed that the ads on google always seem to be something that you might either be interested in or at some point or another have even searched for? It all comes back to data collection. This can be good in a lot of ways, but as is the nature of many things that sound too good to be true, it has its pitfalls. One major place where this personalized experience is a problem is when it comes to politics. In the most recent election, many people looked to social media to get their news and information. The problem with this was that sites, like Facebook, use algorithms that filtered the content that viewers saw on their walls so that people ended up seeing a lot of information and views that agreed with them and helped them to feel more correct in their own opinions. This wasn’t good because it polarized a lot of views that people held and resulted in a messy election season. Sometimes it is best for people to see opinions other than their own so that they can get a better understanding of how other people are thinking. This can help ease a lot of tensions and reduce the effects of the “echo chamber” that results from everyone hearing their own point of views strengthened by others.

The personalized experience of everything online has started to revolutionize the economy. When you are showed the things you want rather than the things that are most popular, more is sold and the implementation of this idea has driven many companies to more success as well as more low-key artists and vendor. The long tail concept has had a big influence on how we buy and look at things online today. The new music I listen to on Spotify, obscure movies and TV shows I see on Netflix, and random purchases I make on Amazon can all vouch for this.