The downside of customized media

One of my favorite magazines is The WORD, a music-centric but eclectic publication from Britain that leaves me invigorated. 

The WORD delivers wonderful surprises each month, among them this lament from founding partner David Hepworth's column in the August issue that suggests technology makes it too easy to put blinders on our media consumption:

"If you turn on the radio, they promise to perfectly mirror your tastes. Who wants that? Patrick Crowther was speaking for many when he posted this on the WORD website:  'Despite its obvious faults, old-school Radio 1 was instrumental in developing my love of music and my interest in different kinds of music. I might not have liked Lena Martell, but being exposed to music that wasn't specifically targeted at me was, in hindsight, a good thing. It broadened my horizons.'

"It didn't just make people keener on what they loved. It also made them more forgiving of what they didn't. The WORD Massive [the magazine's online community] is very tolerant but even I sometimes feel like taking issue with people who don't understand why a particular feature is in the magazine. Isn't part of being a mature individual showing that you can live with and even be interested in things that weren't designed with your approval in mind? I've spent months reading about people I'm not interested in. That's how you get interested. The narrowing is no way to go and that's where we're increasingly being led. 

 "With its personalisation devices, narrowcast channels and sophisticated content filters, contemporary media and technology is doing everything in its power to ensure we never have to go near anything we are not personally enthusiastic about. That way lies what? Better targeting? A station that plays nothing but Fleet Foxes or Tinie Tempah? One thing's for sure, it isn't happiness."

I'll argue that the freedom to choose your own content streams more than ever before is a great thing. Too much choice is much preferred to just three TV networks, a few news stations and a newspaper or two. 

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