In the last whatever, few days, because apparently (I'm told) the tennis is on, there have been headlines about people winning tennis matches, indeed the newspapers (which I don't read in paper form but which are websites to me with things I click on) seem to be leading with various announcements of what seem to be people winning tennis games. Every time I see this, just like every time I go to the home screen of my so-called smart TV, I think wouldn't it be excellent if I didn't have to ever hear about sporting events, and yet they are constantly being peddled to me, not because of my age or gender but because there is an assumption that this might be of interest to me or at least that I won't be offended by it. But I am actually offended by the whole thing, the faces being pulled and the logos and the gestures and everything about it.
I suppose there might be an argument, somewhere, that my interests are different from most interests but of course also that I craft my interests precisely for that purpose, to make myself feel more interesting than and just generally different to general interests. That same argument might posit that I then sometimes align my interests with the mainstream solely so I can feel like / present as someone who's made a sensible, sensitive curatorial decision about what I will and won't like.
But I also think frankly that I need that reality check. I need to be reminded that my tailored algorithm is not reality and that most people like sport and when I'm out in the street looking at the faces of other humans well, most of those people like and pursue and tolerate things I just could not even consider bearable.
I suppose most of us believe most people essentially think what we think. I don't know. What do you think? I suppose I think I know.
