Utterly Predictable

Apparently your Facebook 'likes' and such can betray a lot about your personality.  If you list, say The Wizard of Oz as your favourite film then you are likely to be gay, whereas posting the Godfather means that you are intellectual.  You can always tell when it is a slow news day when newspapers and other media outlets feature this kind of 'story'.  I mean, the 'analysis' involved is all a bit facile, isn't it?  It seems to be based on a set of shallow cultural stereotypes - all gay men like Judy Garland films, don't they?  As for the idea that liking The Godfather indicates a degree of intellectualism - that's utterly laughable.  It seems to be based on the idea that having the endurance to sit through very long films requires intelligence. It doesn't, it just requires good bladder control. If The Godfather had a complex plot, there might be some merit in this assumption,  But it doesn't.  If this 'study' had said that liking, say Luis Bunuel films, was a sign of intellectualism, then I might give it more credence.  But the people behind it, and certainly the journalists promoting it, have probably never heard of Bunuel.

However, we live in an age when the media, advertisers, search engines, even governments, believe that we can all be reduced to series of simple social signals which can predict our behaviour.  It's the age of the algorithm, as promoted by Google, where it is assumed that if you have enough data about individuals you can predict their every desire, thought or activity.  Such simplistic reductionism isn't just depressing - it is just plain wrong.  One of the things which really bug me on the net are those bloody adverts which follow you around, from site to site.  They're the result of having made a search for something on Google, with the various Google ads used on many sites responding to your search terms by displaying 'appropriate' adverts.  You've searched for something, so you must be planning to buy it, right?  Wrong.  I search for stuff for all sorts of reasons. usually just plain curiosity.  I don't think I've ever bought anything as a result of a search I've made online.  Indeed, once I've satisfied my curiosity by searching for something, that's it.  I'm no longer interested.  But Google just keeps on displaying those ads which I'll never click on.  Often for days afterward.  Which is actually counter-productive, as it means that they aren't displaying non-related ads I might click on.  But hey - search activity accurately predicts future behaviour, so the algorithm says.  Who am I to argue?  Clearly I must be wrong.