Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
Beth Bentleypatternrecognitionbytomorrowism.substack.com
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Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
“You can tell someone’s screen time from their outfit, ” as fashion commentator Alexandra Hildreth told Vogue Business last month.
Beth Bentley • Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
algorithm
It’s depressingly easy to forget you are an individual, with your own taste. A unique person. That contains multitudes. It’s worryingly easy - especially when young, especially when feeling in any way lost or unsure, especially when chronically online - to let the algorithm push you. Away from the edges, towards the middle. Away from anything old, ... See more
Beth Bentley • Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
“Can you remember who you were, before the world [ algorithm] told you who you should be?”
- Charles Bukowski
- Charles Bukowski
Beth Bentley • Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
“Under the algorithm, it’s easy to forget there are so many different kinds of people you can be.” - laura reillyMagasin 16/01/24
Beth Bentley • Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
Everyone’s faces have the same...glow. Glass skin, clean girl, glazed girl, cold girl. Everyone’s phone’s the same (and have since 2007 when the iPhone first shipped).
Everyone’s drinking the same amount of water, because ofc everyone’s water bottle looks the same (the Stanley Cup...the status water bottle as talisman of late-capitalism hyper-consu... See more
Everyone’s drinking the same amount of water, because ofc everyone’s water bottle looks the same (the Stanley Cup...the status water bottle as talisman of late-capitalism hyper-consu... See more
Beth Bentley • Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
we unfortunately are in a culture of sameness.
no matter what area or industry, we are all pressured to live up to a specific standard, imitate those who we think we should become, and strive for the things that everyone deems as normal.
we start to forget who we really are under this noise of conformity.
Everyone’s office looks the same (a blend of WeWork/Soho House lite). Everyone’s coffee shops look the same and everyone’s coffee looks the same. Our high streets and malls all look the same (Main Street = chain street). Check into a hotel aimed at people in their 20s-40s...which city are you in? Which country, then? Ok, which continent?
Beth Bentley • Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
Stand for something that’s all your own. Help us find unexpected things and think unexpected thoughts. Don’t create for the algorithm (as tempting as it is to try and give it what it seems to want, to help your brand gain visibility). Don’t drift to the middle in search of eyeballs. Think bigger, more long-term, more societal-level, even. Do things... See more
Beth Bentley • Is the Algorithm Making Us LESS Stylish, LESS Interesting, LESS...ourselves?
we’re all becoming conformists.