What does the "algorithm's" behavior say about people's tastes?

12/06/2024

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Friday. 2 AM on the sixth day of the initial week of 2024's last month. After spending a whole year thoroughly analyzing the "most-watched" works across different platforms according to their "algorithm data", I decided to review what the famous tendencies were through one last glimpse out of mere curiosity. I started this article with an intro comparable to a private diary entry because I simply want to gift it to myself as a reminder of what decisions not to make, even though it sounds kind of selfish. You may think that following the same path I'm taking is quite inspiring, but that's up to your subjectivity.

For a long time, I saw myself as a toy that self-inflicted harm with the terrible recommendations streaming platforms gave me daily, but that phase has come to an end. C'est fini. Never, in any conceivable life, would I waste two hours of my life watching the nonexistent talent of the famous and controversial Argentine actress—if we can even call her that—Maria Eugenia "China" Suarez in Linda, one of the most-streamed movies according to Disney+'s algorithm. Likewise, I would never allow myself to descend into audiovisual hell and let my eyes bleed while watching Megan Fox play a hot dangerous AI in a suspense movie recommended by Prime Video. Beyond my personal preferences, I often ask myself: What makes people not ponder, even a second, about what they are about to hit play on with their remote or phone if they have Chromecast like I do? Where is the line between the absurd and the trivial drawn? Is there even a debate?

ALGORITHM'S BEHAVIOR, NOT AUDIENCE'S BEHAVIOR

To understand why I'm talking about the "behavior" of the algorithm instead of the audience's, we need to demystify some truths we often take for granted. The first one is that streaming platforms don't only show what we see on the surface. There are many small and big gems hidden in each platfor's catalog that can be easily discovered (if that's what we truly want). But if you are one of those lazy people that don't want to look for something off the radar, this tip may not be for you.

The following example can relieve several people's boredom: there are many different ways to look for movies and shows that are not generally shown on Netflix. One of the most effective ones is by introducing a numeric code after typing www.netflix.com/browse/genre/ (then adding the code you want). This will immediately bring up works related to a specific genre/subgenre. I will leave different ones at the end of this article that might come in handy.

Returning to the algorithm topic, it's clear that apart from the audience's preferences, algorithms are also influenced by economic and marketing factors, interests related to fame like the necessity many celebrities have to resurface and also certain disdain for good taste. But this doesn't happen on all streaming platforms. Max is the most resounding case, which I humbly think has the potential to dethrone any of the other platforms in a couple of years as the most watched and subscribed to. This week, Civil War was the most watched film on the platform. This movie is A24's latest big bet and was crowned as the highest-grossing film from a studio that has been on a constant rise for the past decade. The smart move by the former HBO was made in a highly sensitive political context in North America, encouraging its subscribers to hit play without thinking too much about it.

On the other hand, Netflix invites us to watch all kinds of movies and shows through a section on its homepage called "Your Next Watch." There, we can find new and older releases, many based on and inspired by your own viewing history, others that have nothing to do with your taste, and some that the company thinks you may like, without any explanation as to why. Netflix's case is pretty interesting: there's so much "content" on it that finding something we are really drawn to seems like an actual chaos.

This disease of wanting to cover all races, religions, political postures, ages and any other aspects that come to mind is part of a competition that encourages all other megacorporations—except for some like MUBI or Max—to develop systems based on quantity rather than quality. How do they know what everyone wants to watch? Collaborative filtering is one of the techniques these companies rely on most. This method basically analyzes a person's behavioral patterns regarding their preferences and, if two options share a significant number of similarities, it recommends titles based on that viewing history. This means that individuality is stripped away to speed up the recommendation process and, in this way, keep luring more users.

What does the future hold for watching shows and movies at home every day?

NETFLIX'S GENRE/SUBGENRE CODES

43040 - Action comedies

7700 - Westerns movies

8985 - Martial arts

7243 - Sports dramas

3179 - Biopics

11079 - Experimental movies

3269 -Independent thrillers

1694 - Sci-fi horror movies

11140 - Supernatural thrillers

5505 - Psychological thrillers

8646 - Slasher and serial killers

8195 - Horror B-movies

89585 - Horror comedies

869 - Dark comedies

26 - Mockumentaries

4922 - Satires

52858 - Epic movies

29764 - Arthouse films

9292 - Scandinavian movies

10306 - Foreign thrillers (not North American)

Posted on DECEMBER 6, 2024, 02:45 AM | UTC-GMT -3

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marvelousmars

· 12/08/2024

I love data analysis and looking into the black box of algorithms, so this was a fascinating read! Personally, I think streaming services' greatest sin is that they optimise for marketing rather than story. They try to make something that everyone likes with an obvious hook and a shallow plot. The result is bland films that just barely pass people's acceptability threshold. These films are also then most likely to be those pushed by the algorithm because they just barely appeal to the maximum amount of people, and our standards and expectations just keep plummeting.

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Lucas.

· 12/07/2024

Thank you for including the codes! They could prove very handy. I agree, it's difficult to select what to watch and even more so when the recommendations all seem like hot garbage. I've noticed that most movies produced by streaming platforms are, for the most part, horrible (until Awards season and they actually start trying). It's the ones that were first in theatres, like Civil War, that become havens for cinephiles on streaming platforms. We don't want quantity; we want quality! And when you have to put butts in seats at the cinemas, you have more incentive to make something worthwhile, rather than something that's meant to be played in the background.