But Spotify, along with Netflix and many other digital products that provide personalized media recommendations, failed to realize what my friend already knew: Cool recommendations come from cool people. These algorithmic efforts to discern the precise nuances of users’ individual preferences, by iteratively feeding their in-app behavior back to them, reflect a belief that personal taste is a product of nature rather than nurture. In other words, from this algorithmic perspective, our taste is intrinsic and immutable rather than an ever-changing result of our ongoing interactions with our environment.
Austin, D. (2021, October 24). Algorithms were supposed to be the future for finding new movies and music. But now we’ve realized they’ll never replace your cool friend’s recommendation. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-netflix-algorithms-not-as-good-as-cool-friends-recommendation-2021-10