The cult of algorithms

We’re all members, like it or not, and mostly not.

Instagram is convinced I want to buy a watch. I get ads for men’s wrist watches all the time.

When you consider that across the span of my life I have almost never worn a watch, I think those dinner plate sized brand name monstrosities that are the hallmark of status seeking males look really dumb, and that I already have a Fitbit which serves needs I actually care about, it should be pretty obvious that I’m not in the market for a fashion statement watch.

We all know the stereotype that if you buy one blender off of Amazon then every online ad you see on every website for two months following will be for blenders. This is because the processes, the algorithms, that decide what ads to show us are too simplistic to understand that people buy blenders not only to blend things, but also to not have to think about buying blenders anymore. What passes for “artificial intelligence” is pretty much a sequence of assumptions with no more than two points of references. You bought a thing, you must want those things. Not very intelligent by any stretch.

That’s not the problem with Instagram insisting on showing me watches, though. Not only have I never bought a watch online or otherwise, whenever an ad for a watch pops up in my feed, I dutifully click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner, select “Hide Ad” and then select “It’s not relevant”. So on top of never having created any first point of reference indicating I like watches through my buying habits, I proactively do what I can to inform Instagram that I am absolutely not interested.

You would think that they’d be happy to use that information. Everyone involved in this situation is motivated to stop showing me ads for watches. I have no interest in them, Instagram wants me to stay addicted to using their app by being constantly exposed to images I like, and the people selling watches don’t want to spend advertising money on anyone who is completely outside their target demographic.

The reason I’m still getting these ads as to do with a fundamental philosophy of computer scientists and engineers, the coders and designers of this increasingly high tech world that we live in. They’re not really a cohesive group with one…