Algorithms might not be sexy, but boy are they efficient. Search the web for new shoes, and an algorithm instantly shows you hundreds of similar ones. Look at some new furniture, and the same sofa suddenly appears in all your ads. From TikTok reels to fast-food, the well-oiled machine loves to feed you more of what you already like.

But when algorithms are so ruthlessly focused, what will happen to the element of surprise?

It wasn’t too long ago that opportunities for discovery were all around us. Take that Friday-night ritual we used to line up for: picking a movie at Blockbuster. You probably had a favourite section, but wander a couple of aisles over and you were suddenly in brand new territory. Action heroes gave way to horror classics or romcoms and there was no telling what might catch your eye.

The same thing went for books or music or clothing. Sure, you had your favourites, but a random title or interesting CD cover could grab your attention as you wandered by. A different route through the mall could lead to all kinds of interesting discoveries, from shoes to frozen yogurt.

Today, we have more choice than ever, but it often feels like a false choice. As though we’re wearing blinkers while the algorithm behind our shopping or social media sites show us a million different colours of socks or opinions, but they’re all just variations of the same socks and opinions.

It makes perfect sense, of course. The algorithms that feed websites (more accurately, the people that write the algorithms) aren’t risk takers. They want certainty.

The certainty that comes from keeping you scrolling your feed or looking at products for the longest possible time. The best way to do that? Keep showing you more of what it knows you already like, without straying far from that baseline.

Which is all well and good when it comes to utilitarian things like toilet paper and dish soap.

But the joys of discovering new clothes or movies or music, new books or vacation spots—those are the joys we risk losing if we stay within the confines of the algorithm’s so-called choices. Those lists of recommendations accurately titled “More of the Same.”

Give me a colleague’s random recommendation for a zombie movie (something I’d never have chosen but, surprisingly, loved). Let me discover a gem of a small, local farm that makes the best goat-milk products I’ve ever tried—simply because I was driving by one day.

And yes, send me off to try Crocs because co-workers couldn’t stop raving, only to decide they weren’t for me.

But never let me get so blinkered by the algorithms that I forget to enjoy the element of surprise.

Photo by Gloire Bingana on Unsplash