This sentence made me gasp out loud; “Algorithms encourage us to consume things other people think are interesting.”
You are bang on, Beth.
I found this newsletter out of the Anna edit and I completely agree with everything you’ve said.
It’s got to the point where I don’t even know what MY style is anymore?
Do I even like the items that I’m clicking on?
For example, I hate brown and it’s everywhere, so that’s quite a strong one, and I know I really don’t like it but for the rest of it… Who knows?
I was saying to my friend the other day How, I think we just dressed like lemmings and there’s absolutely an Instagram uniform, especially in autumn winter of 2022 when it was leggings, thick sports socks trainers, and a quilted jacket for example.
I am so guilty this myself, but I’m trying really hard not to do it.
I went to the pub with my friend the other day and four out of six of us, basically the same outfit on.
Is the solution just to ditch Instagram/TikTok altogether? I’m 35 so I’m not really on TikTok anyway, but I definitely get sucked in by Instagram
And also you’re so right about the hotel, shops et cetera et cetera I’m in Canada right now and it’s actually not even that different to the UK. Literally the High Street is like H&M aritiza Uniqlo and Zara….
I had this realization in September related to how the algorithm/internet has impacted geographic places: I grew up in Seattle and am living here again now. When I visited Canada growing up, I’d cross the border and immediately it felt like a different country. Items were different, design was different, food was different etc. We did a Vancouver Island road trip this summer and I noticed nothing really feels different from the US anymore. Restaurants, boutiques, hotels, coffee shops - everywhere in the world it is all starting to look and feel so similar.
How very interesting re your border experience. You're so right about how stark this can feel when you go on holiday/take a trip to a place you hope/anticipate will feel 'different' to home life. What's the endgame...standardised sameness/flat monoculture/an international air space kind of feeling...but everywhere?
I feel personally attacked by the Tabi bin graffiti. But in all seriousness...I think we need to collectively relearn how to appreciate trends without actively buying into them. Take the whole grey & red thing. Looks interesting, fresh and simply enough to replicate but in such a short space of time it already feels saturated. I scroll through my Pinterest feed and it's grey/red/grey/gred...it's too much for me but too much FOMO for others. (I got fomo for massive blazers but that's another problem...) How would you solve it?
Totally agree, Caitlin. There's maybe a (lost? entirely new?) skill in appreciating without participating...a person doesn't need to be part of every -core/trend/micro-movement in order to be deemed relevant/stylish by their peers/followers/the culture. And not everything we love will suit us or make sense in our lives. Less is more, style = restraint, etc? Also my feeds are red + grey too. Also sorry about the bin thing :). Thank you for sharing your v thought-provoking response to this.
Lols but I love the bin thing :) I definitely agree we've lost the ability for self-restraint, or at least it's been deprioritised. Not to sound like a millennial boomer, but the amount of credit card debt spent on sneakers in my team at work is unreal and yet so normalised. There's a whole 'Catch and Release' thing in the thrifting community that I think we should collectively adopt in fashion? That or more bin-shaming memes...or both!
There's a new book on the subject of algorithmically determined taste: “Filterworld,” by journalist Kyle Chayka. He doesn't discuss fashion, but he does explore the flattening effect on other areas of culture and design (why do all trendy coffee shops around the world look the same?).
I'm always fascinated by the fact parents gravitate towards the same baby named, but honestly feel they're giving their child a "different, refreshing" name. They subconsciously choose the most popular names out there.
To add, we are seeing this in science too. It's dangerous when pseudoscience controls the narrative over peer-reviewed science, experts, regulatory authorities and global consensus. There's so much misinformation related to GMOs and pesticides, and the misinformation targets food security.
Wow Beth! Brilliantly written. I have spent about a week attempting to write on a similar topic with much less success. Bravo for making me think more on this algorithmic phenomenon and for giving me hope on what’s next.
Thank you so much Kelly - this means a lot given your expert industry perspective. I found it a pretty tough topic to write about in a way that isn't either overly alarmist...or horribly judgemental.
It’s the algorithm and it’s also that we want to reduce attack surfaces. There was a time when you wouldn’t expect to be photographed at any moment and you certainly wouldn’t expect strangers to ever see the inside of your home, and now that’s not true, and I think people dress sort of defensively.
Fascinating read. I am also intrigued by the specificity on Substack. So many people seem to be searching for X bag, or Y shoes, or Z cardigan as though that bag or shoe or cardigan was going to bring them some level of happiness/style/fashion savvy. The notion that you can buy style seems like the inverse/opposite of genuine style. Why would you want what everyone else is wearing?
I really appreciate this piece. Hate to do a self promotion, but you should check out my website/instagram to see what's going on over here in Vancouver, we got some diverse looks!
Do you know Hari Kunzru's book, Red Pill? This passage resonates here:
“We will carry on trying to make a case for ourselves, for our own specialness, but we will find that arrayed against us is an inexorable and inhuman power—manic and all-devouring […] I described the reduction of my most cherished mysteries to simple algorithmic operations, instructions that could be put on a chip—a disenchantment so total that afterwards, after the shift, it would be impossible even to think back to how it was, to imagine what it was to be alive in the old way.
My luxurious mental furnishings, my sensibility and intelligence and taste, all were turned to ashes, and the same thing would happen to everyone else on Earth. The destruction of culture was only the beginning; meaning itself would be revealed as an artefact of a period that was slipping away into history.”
Had a related thought when I found myself surrounded by people who I could just tell had been served outfit inspiration by the Instagram algorithm in a sweetgreen in dtwn SF which was somehow very appropriate. I was reminded of the feeling that curating instagram posts used to conjure in me in the more intentional posting era before Stories. But now the curation was showing in purchase choices instead of on the grid. The line between online and offline identity shaping grows increasingly blurry…and expensive? Oh dear.
This sentence made me gasp out loud; “Algorithms encourage us to consume things other people think are interesting.”
You are bang on, Beth.
I found this newsletter out of the Anna edit and I completely agree with everything you’ve said.
It’s got to the point where I don’t even know what MY style is anymore?
Do I even like the items that I’m clicking on?
For example, I hate brown and it’s everywhere, so that’s quite a strong one, and I know I really don’t like it but for the rest of it… Who knows?
I was saying to my friend the other day How, I think we just dressed like lemmings and there’s absolutely an Instagram uniform, especially in autumn winter of 2022 when it was leggings, thick sports socks trainers, and a quilted jacket for example.
I am so guilty this myself, but I’m trying really hard not to do it.
I went to the pub with my friend the other day and four out of six of us, basically the same outfit on.
Is the solution just to ditch Instagram/TikTok altogether? I’m 35 so I’m not really on TikTok anyway, but I definitely get sucked in by Instagram
And also you’re so right about the hotel, shops et cetera et cetera I’m in Canada right now and it’s actually not even that different to the UK. Literally the High Street is like H&M aritiza Uniqlo and Zara….
I had this realization in September related to how the algorithm/internet has impacted geographic places: I grew up in Seattle and am living here again now. When I visited Canada growing up, I’d cross the border and immediately it felt like a different country. Items were different, design was different, food was different etc. We did a Vancouver Island road trip this summer and I noticed nothing really feels different from the US anymore. Restaurants, boutiques, hotels, coffee shops - everywhere in the world it is all starting to look and feel so similar.
How very interesting re your border experience. You're so right about how stark this can feel when you go on holiday/take a trip to a place you hope/anticipate will feel 'different' to home life. What's the endgame...standardised sameness/flat monoculture/an international air space kind of feeling...but everywhere?
I feel personally attacked by the Tabi bin graffiti. But in all seriousness...I think we need to collectively relearn how to appreciate trends without actively buying into them. Take the whole grey & red thing. Looks interesting, fresh and simply enough to replicate but in such a short space of time it already feels saturated. I scroll through my Pinterest feed and it's grey/red/grey/gred...it's too much for me but too much FOMO for others. (I got fomo for massive blazers but that's another problem...) How would you solve it?
Totally agree, Caitlin. There's maybe a (lost? entirely new?) skill in appreciating without participating...a person doesn't need to be part of every -core/trend/micro-movement in order to be deemed relevant/stylish by their peers/followers/the culture. And not everything we love will suit us or make sense in our lives. Less is more, style = restraint, etc? Also my feeds are red + grey too. Also sorry about the bin thing :). Thank you for sharing your v thought-provoking response to this.
Lols but I love the bin thing :) I definitely agree we've lost the ability for self-restraint, or at least it's been deprioritised. Not to sound like a millennial boomer, but the amount of credit card debt spent on sneakers in my team at work is unreal and yet so normalised. There's a whole 'Catch and Release' thing in the thrifting community that I think we should collectively adopt in fashion? That or more bin-shaming memes...or both!
There's a new book on the subject of algorithmically determined taste: “Filterworld,” by journalist Kyle Chayka. He doesn't discuss fashion, but he does explore the flattening effect on other areas of culture and design (why do all trendy coffee shops around the world look the same?).
I'm always fascinated by the fact parents gravitate towards the same baby named, but honestly feel they're giving their child a "different, refreshing" name. They subconsciously choose the most popular names out there.
Oh that is such an interesting topic. I was HYPER conscious of this naming my own babies :)
To add, we are seeing this in science too. It's dangerous when pseudoscience controls the narrative over peer-reviewed science, experts, regulatory authorities and global consensus. There's so much misinformation related to GMOs and pesticides, and the misinformation targets food security.
#Lysenkoism is alive and well.
That is such an interesting parallel. A (societal) need to go beyond the surface, in all ways.
Oh my goodness. What a great piece
Wow Beth! Brilliantly written. I have spent about a week attempting to write on a similar topic with much less success. Bravo for making me think more on this algorithmic phenomenon and for giving me hope on what’s next.
Thank you so much Kelly - this means a lot given your expert industry perspective. I found it a pretty tough topic to write about in a way that isn't either overly alarmist...or horribly judgemental.
Yes! I am trying so hard to write from a place without judgement since I am relearning too!!
It’s the algorithm and it’s also that we want to reduce attack surfaces. There was a time when you wouldn’t expect to be photographed at any moment and you certainly wouldn’t expect strangers to ever see the inside of your home, and now that’s not true, and I think people dress sort of defensively.
Fascinating read. I am also intrigued by the specificity on Substack. So many people seem to be searching for X bag, or Y shoes, or Z cardigan as though that bag or shoe or cardigan was going to bring them some level of happiness/style/fashion savvy. The notion that you can buy style seems like the inverse/opposite of genuine style. Why would you want what everyone else is wearing?
I really appreciate this piece. Hate to do a self promotion, but you should check out my website/instagram to see what's going on over here in Vancouver, we got some diverse looks!
Do you know Hari Kunzru's book, Red Pill? This passage resonates here:
“We will carry on trying to make a case for ourselves, for our own specialness, but we will find that arrayed against us is an inexorable and inhuman power—manic and all-devouring […] I described the reduction of my most cherished mysteries to simple algorithmic operations, instructions that could be put on a chip—a disenchantment so total that afterwards, after the shift, it would be impossible even to think back to how it was, to imagine what it was to be alive in the old way.
My luxurious mental furnishings, my sensibility and intelligence and taste, all were turned to ashes, and the same thing would happen to everyone else on Earth. The destruction of culture was only the beginning; meaning itself would be revealed as an artefact of a period that was slipping away into history.”
Afterwards, there would only be function.”
That is so good. The REDUCTION. Thank you so much for putting this here.
YUP!
so glad you have proof of the tabi bins bc they were in my mind when I mentioned them in my newsletter yesterday
Had a related thought when I found myself surrounded by people who I could just tell had been served outfit inspiration by the Instagram algorithm in a sweetgreen in dtwn SF which was somehow very appropriate. I was reminded of the feeling that curating instagram posts used to conjure in me in the more intentional posting era before Stories. But now the curation was showing in purchase choices instead of on the grid. The line between online and offline identity shaping grows increasingly blurry…and expensive? Oh dear.
love that you loved it...thank you