Jeez, well that sounds real technical… what high level jargon is that?

That jargon is from my Foundations of Business class. Mass customization makes products just for you – just for everyone frankly – while being more convenient than the basic option. I’m sure you’re very familiar. Those sneakers “custom built” on that sick website, the build-your-own burrito at the restaurant that slaps, the daily mix on your chill music app.

And there’s more than just familiarity with these products. They have become like your group of friends that seem to know everything about you, and they’ll do anything for you.

Well jeez, that sounds like the type of friends I’d like to have, what’s the problem with that?

There might be a problem if your friends are overpriced sneakers and that killa’ playlist on your phone.

At such a critical time to grow and expand our horizons, really come together during our college years to figure out who we want to be in life, the luxury of mass customization is harmful towards this exploration and blocks off the majority of the big world all around us.  

Such as the tragedy of my Instagram explore page…

Last summer I took a cruise and afterwards liked some pictures on their Instagram page. That was last summer and, as I’m writing this well over a year later, my Instagram “explore” page is just littered with cruise ship related posts.

This is what frustrates me about mass customization. Instagram really said, “Oh we got ‘em now, he’s gonna love all these cruise ship pictures we’ve curated just for him!” I can’t escape. I go around liking all sorts of things to break the algorithm, but their equation is set that I have some cruise ship obsession. It’s so powerful that sometimes I just can’t resist, and I give the cruise ships pictures a like now and then… This seems more like the future from The Terminator than from The Jetsons to me.

This Mass Customization Gone Wrong story is a funny anecdote, but in the bigger picture these educated guesses that companies are constantly pushing our way, hoping one sticks and we ride with it, is what turns all of our Instagram explore pages into a cruise ship catalog, blocking out the possibility of me exploring other interests outside of the maritime.

Jeez what a story… So what now?

The bad news is that it’s too late. This new form of marketing and servicing has become the norm, and it really sells. Mass customization is the price we have paid for convenience, and when we look at it from this lens, we see past the illusion to a much deeper social issue of our identity and the grasp corporations have on it.

I’m not quite equipped to tackle that at the moment so I’ll just end with the good news. Good news is that at the end of the day you’re still an individual and being more self-aware goes a long way. Go out and get out of your comfort zone and break out of the marketing spiderweb.

On Wednesday I went to Movies on the House (MOTH) at the Robinson Theatre and watched a film called A Ghost Tale. As far as I know that film wasn’t made for me at all, but I just kind of waltzed in there and it stuck with me a lot more than any movie “made for me” according to the constant bombardment of YouTube ads. At the end of the day these companies can’t know you more than you know yourself, and sometimes trying things that might not seem for you or just even stumbling on something can be much more meaningful.

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