Algorithms. eh? What’s that all about? I’m hoping someone out there knows the answer to this as I have to say they are leaving me somewhat perturbed.
Take Facebook ads, for example. You know, the things which – some days – are every other post on your feed and leave you wondering why you’re being targeted for all sorts of strange things that have no relevance to any of your interests or are so wildly off course that you’re tempted to actually click on them. Every so often I’ll be bombarded with promotions for self-published rubbish by ‘A N Other – Author’, or for sites posting celebrity rubbish or obvious clickbait. I go through the motions: hide ad, tell us why you hid this ad (usually I choose the ‘not relevant to me’ option as there isn’t an ‘it’s utter balls’ selection), hide all ads from this advertiser. Inevitably this makes no difference, and the same ad will reappear. So I click on the ‘why am I seeing this ad?’ option and it says ‘because you’re over 40’ or ‘because you interacted with content about history’. Well yes, I did interact with content about history – I like history – but the content you are attempting to show me is about Kardashians, or about people I don’t know who went to the doctor and found out something, or about this one trick that will help me keep my house permanently tidy/lose half my bodyweight/some other frankly unlikely outcome. Then it will give me the option to undo the ‘hide all content from this advertiser’ that I chose last time, in case I’ve suddenly seen the light: my god YES I AM over 40 and and I DO like history, why would I not want to see all this other stuff??? DROWN ME IN THOSE KARDASHIAN SHENANIGANS! I AM READY! *
Recently, however, I have am wondering whether the algorithm is trying to tell me something. As you may recall, I turned 50** earlier this year and I may have mentioned – once or twice – the joys of menopause and getting older. So, naturally, I have seen a fair number of ads for ‘the one menopause treatment you can’t live without’ and so on. This is fine and shows that sometimes the ads are at least vaguely relevant (I still hide them though, it’s the principle of the thing) but now I am starting to get a bit concerned. I have gone straight from ads for menopause solutions and to ads for funeral plans and the local burial ground, without passing through Saga holidays and the other fun things us quinquagenarians are supposed to be looking forward to now the kids are old enough to cook their own fish fingers and stuff. Should I be worried?
*I will never be ready. I cancelled my Grazia subscription when it became obsessed with Kardashians and Middletons.
**This whole 50 thing is a bit of a swizz, it seems – this year the government have moved the flu jab goalpost so I still have to pay. This seems unfair. Chiz chiz, as Molesworth would say.
Other things making me happy this week
- Falling in love with London all over again. In an attempt to thwart the Central Line and achieve coffee with with Amanda I got an early train. Walking from Chancery Lane to Farringdon through the little Hatton Garden lanes, complete with sparkly Christmas lights and interesting old buildings before the sun was properly up (and before all the people arrived), reminded me how magical the city is. And we managed coffee.
- Glow in the Angel yesterday – popping up at Islington Green with a star lantern activity designed by Jhinuk Sarkar and meeting lots of our future audience, followed by a drink with Amanda and Karen. There was a polar bear, a celebrity cat and lots of happy people.
- Esme Young’s autobiography on Audible
- The sweet elderly lady in Pret with her daughter and granddaughter yesterday – shed been watching me crochet little granny squares and when I turned one into a bauble she got very excited.
- Celebrating neighbour Sue’s birthday with tea, cake, chatter and the Barbie movie
- More crochet Christmas decorations – note to self, don’t leave the baubles out overnight as the cat steals them
- Finishing the ‘Coat of Many Pockets’ for the new storytelling session inspired by Quentin Blake’s Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets – I can’t wait to see the sessions this week!
And now it’s time to get ready for a swim – later there will be a nap, as my Beloved’s (clearly haunted) toothbrush decided to turn itself on at 4.30am and would not turn off. I have been awake since.
Same time next week!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
Walk the Lines – Mark Mason
The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett (Audible)
The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman (Audible)
Behind the Seams – Esme Young (Audible)
What Kirsty did next 