Resisting the algorithm
Trying to find my own taste
I really, really like popular things. I will always watch whatever HBO show everyone is talking about and I will always listen to charting albums. I know that I will eventually succumb and find myself a copy of Intermezzo.
But! I’m also incredibly aware that this is not always good for my brain or for the development of personal taste. So much of my cultural consumption is ruled by algorithms. I listen to the playlists that Spotify makes for me and I end up hearing the same 20 songs on repeat. I read the books I see on TikTok and I end up with several variations of the same millennial experience told in vaguely the same style. Kyle Chayka has written lots about this and has put it better than I ever could. So, I’m starting to crowdsource ways of resisting algorithmic taste. This is what I’ve got so far – if you have more, give me more!
Check out a random book at the library. (You can go to a bookshop and do this too, but the library is literally, like, free? Totally free?). This method has led me to some bad reads that I didn’t finish, and that’s fine, because not liking something is also a taste-developing exercise. It’s also got me out of reading ruts. I’m currently reading Buckingham Palace, District Six by Richard Rive, which I picked because I like the title. It’s set in a black neighbourhood in South Africa in the 1950s, following a bizarre and entertaining cast of characters. The book is so old that it has a sticker for Dillons, the bookshop that used to occupy the Gower Street Waterstones, and a tiny biro note on the back page that reads ‘early detection turned out to be benign’ which is exactly the kind of mundane poetic message that makes library books so joyful.
Festivals. Film festivals, music festivals, whatever you have access to. It’s nice to have your recommendations curated for you by someone whose job it is to curate things. I’m also going to put curated seasons at cinemas into this camp. One of the best things about living in London is the cinemas (would I really be a true middle-class hack if I didn’t say that I just love the Prince Charles?), but if you don’t live near one that regularly screens old films, just google one that does, pick a random day, and stream whatever they're showing for yourself at home.
Buy movies. I have a bad habit of reading about a movie that sounds cool, discovering that it’s not on Netflix or whatever streaming platform I’m currently subscribed to, and then forgetting about said movie and watching reruns of Friends instead. The streaming giants have so much monopoly over taste. Films become cult films simply because they’re a vaguely good movie on Netflix. I want to break free of their shackles, which means coughing up £3.99 to buy the film I want to watch. (Sure, you can pirate it too, but I will judge you for it. In my moments where I worry that I might turn into an entitled, demanding woman (read: Karen), I remember that I get mad at people who pirate movies and so I am actually already the entitled, demanding woman I fear so much.)
The radio. Fuck, the radio. I, unfortunately, like dad music, and the most star-struck I’ve ever been is when I saw Steve Lamacq nursing a pint of cider in my local pub, because his radio show really is the best. Even if you’re cooler than me and believe that there’s better music out there than obnoxious men playing guitars, his show is excellent if you hate ‘radio voice’.
Read print media. When I buy a newspaper or a magazine, I’ll read essays and articles just because they’re in front of me, and not because I’ve come across a link that is enticing enough to click. That means I come across topics that I — and the algorithm — didn’t know that I would find interesting. The review sections of print are also always underrated. I love learning about things other people have enjoyed that I would have otherwise never have come across!
Take this all with a pinch of salt: I’m well aware that this list is basically a list of doing stuff without your phone.
Love,
Freya