What Happened to Serendipity?

Everything these days seems to be tailored to our own convenience. iTunes, TiVo, Amazon, Google- the whole internet, really, are all streamlining our personal experiences so that we don't have to sift through all of the junk that's out there in order to get what we really want, whether it be a particular song, the last episode of The Office, a novel or even a credible source for your next research paper (aka NOT Wikipedia).

But what if we don't know what we want?

Technology and the world in general are catering towards a specific kind of consumer, a consumer that fits into a specific mold or stereotype and so can be counted on to like certain things according to some sort of mathematical formula, like when Amazon pops up with related search items that you might be interested in. This approach is very lucrative for companies, as it allows them to market items specifically towards the people who are most likely to buy them.

However, this approach is also lacking in a very important aspect of of human life- individuality. These algorithms cannot take into account all of the ins and outs of human likes and dislikes, because algorithms only work if their subjects make sense. And we all know most humans don't make a lot of sense.

So why does this matter?

Well, companies are marketing this way because it gives you the tools to assemble your own identity. All American society can think about right now is "being uniquely you", so of course we gladly seize upon anything that can aid us in our endeavor. However, when we use these tools, they squeeze us into a sort of box. If at this point in your life, you like emo music and you look for emo music using iTunes, Amazon, Google, etc, all you'll get back is emo music because these tools are designed to give you what you want. So, if you stick to using these tools for the rest of your life, you'll continue to listen to emo-related music for the rest of your life because you're not going to encounter anything else.

Which is fine if you like emo music. But what if you're not really an emo music kind of person and you just think you are because your friends happen to be? What if you're really a country kid and you just never found out because all you ever saw was emo stuff? I know it sounds melodramatic, but when people start implanting computers in their heads (it'll happen eventually), they're going to rely on them to make their lives easier by pointing them towards the things that they need and want according to past preferences, simply because it's much more convenient. Unfortunately, this convenience sucks out all the unpredictability from life, and so pretty much sucks out the essence of life itself.

Take, for instance, Match.com. When you get on Match.com you take a personality and interests test and your results are matched to people in your area. The profiles you get back are the ones that are the most similar to yours, so in essence, you're looking to date yourself in a slightly altered physical form.

Think of all of the successful relationships you've witnessed, or the person you're dating now. Are you exactly like your partner? The answer is probably no. In most relationships people obviously have some sort of common ground, but are also different in substantial ways. If you really wanted to be with someone just like you, you could just buy a mirror.

Now, I'm not saying that Match.com is necessarily bad. It can be great for some people. But if the entire world was looking on Match.com to find their soulmates....well, the birthrate would decline pretty rapidly, just because something like love tends to be random. How many people do you know who married the exact kind of person they always thought they would marry? Haven't you ever liked someone you never thought you would like?

Look, we've all met people who could definitely qualify as living, breathing stereotypes, but you've got to admit that most people just don't fit into a mold. The problem is, when companies give us a mold, we tend to try to smush ourselves into it. They say they're helping us break out of conformity, but what they're really doing is giving a choice in what we conform to. It doesn't seem like a big deal now, but in another ten years, technology and society will have evolved to the point where we don't have to go out and find things for ourselves; they'll just be brought to us via Wi-Fi. And since technology can never be as complex (knock on wood) as a human being, it can never truly bring us what we want, it can only bring us what it thinks we want- and thus what we think we want.

All I'm asking is, what happened to serendipity? What happened to finding a cool band in a record store? What happened to discovering some cute clothes at some random store in the mall? What happened to finding a new favorite book at the library? What happened to channel surfing? And what happened to love at first sight? Did all of these little, everyday things just fade away to be replaced by some math equation?

The way things are going now, there's not going to be any more "expect the unexpected", because the internet is not capable of giving you what you don't expect. If it did, it would have a major design flaw. The internet is a great tool, but it's just being overused.

So, the next time you're looking for something, sacrifice convenience for serendipity. Turn off your iPod and laptop and get up and go find it yourself.

Bring back the magic, people. Bring back some serendipity.