How to Discover Your Own Taste
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-kyle-chayka.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Rk0.dLWA.Shrzu6bRDm_D&bgrp=a&smid=url-share
I listened to this episode this morning, and, though they talk about personal taste in the age of algorithmic recommendations in general, I thought it had some interesting conversations directly applicable to an online fashion community.
Some bullet points for discussion if you don't want to listen to it:
At some point, the internet moved from curation, where it was about finding people whose taste you enjoyed (and who would go on to shape what you like), to the internet of algorithms, where we are shown whatever is spit out of some black box, losing the individual experience but gaining what you could call the ease of scalability.
Do you think it's harder to develop a personal taste (or "style") today? On one hand, it is easier than ever to be fed hundreds of Tik Tok videos of your chosen aesthetic, on the other, we perhaps lose the context that can be a vital part of developing taste.
Do algorithms tend to flatten taste, driving you to the same viral grwms or whatever, or does it tend to silo us off into our online bubbles?
One point they bring up is that, as algorithmic curation becomes ubiquitous, it could give everyone access to a "lowest common denomiator" of aggregated taste. In this world, is individuality put at more of a premium?
As our internet experience that mediates our relationship with fashion challenges our taste less and less, as the algorithm feeds us what it thinks we want to see, what do you foresee the effects on fashion being? Could there be a bifurcation between what they call "quantified mass appeal" vs "particularistic appeal" (generic fits acceptable to most vs crazy avant garde shit enjoyed by a few)?
How has your own taste shaped by the algorithms that mediate your life? Could be as simple as dressing for WDYWT highlights.
I listened to this episode this morning, and, though they talk about personal taste in the age of algorithmic recommendations in general, I thought it had some interesting conversations directly applicable to an online fashion community.
Some bullet points for discussion if you don't want to listen to it:
At some point, the internet moved from curation, where it was about finding people whose taste you enjoyed (and who would go on to shape what you like), to the internet of algorithms, where we are shown whatever is spit out of some black box, losing the individual experience but gaining what you could call the ease of scalability.
Do you think it's harder to develop a personal taste (or "style") today? On one hand, it is easier than ever to be fed hundreds of Tik Tok videos of your chosen aesthetic, on the other, we perhaps lose the context that can be a vital part of developing taste.
Do algorithms tend to flatten taste, driving you to the same viral grwms or whatever, or does it tend to silo us off into our online bubbles?
One point they bring up is that, as algorithmic curation becomes ubiquitous, it could give everyone access to a "lowest common denomiator" of aggregated taste. In this world, is individuality put at more of a premium?
As our internet experience that mediates our relationship with fashion challenges our taste less and less, as the algorithm feeds us what it thinks we want to see, what do you foresee the effects on fashion being? Could there be a bifurcation between what they call "quantified mass appeal" vs "particularistic appeal" (generic fits acceptable to most vs crazy avant garde shit enjoyed by a few)?
How has your own taste shaped by the algorithms that mediate your life? Could be as simple as dressing for WDYWT highlights.
The New York TimesBy ‘The Ezra Klein Show’
Kyle Chayka on the art of developing personal style in an age when algorithms loom over aesthetics and culture.
