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Caption: Transforming my
Netflix profile into a Romantic movie collection
A Netflix algorithm
play
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Caption: Day one - 6th of march
i started to play with my personal Netflix profile.
at the initial stage the Netflix algorithm offers me action, fantasy and since i am a dad of a 3 1/2 old - kids movies.
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Caption: I am in Mexico at the moment and
i noticed my profile to be very monodimensional!
It advertises me mainly action movies and ( Hollywood fantasy Blockbuster)which doesn‘t fully match my preferences and habbits.
Maybe influenced by Mexican viewers?
I saved screenshots for later comparison.
So let’s start the play!
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Caption: Day 2 -Algorithm Play
Get engaged with Romantic Wellbeing movies
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Caption: Day 2
Start of Algorithm play by searching, adding, liking and watching Romantic movies
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Caption: Adding movies to „My List“ -( day 2
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Caption: End of Day 2 - 7.3.
My profile already starts to change. It seems the algorithm reacts due to my changed viewing patterns... starting with my „“continue watching“ list!
Not yet a sign of selection bias
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Caption: Day 3 -8.3.
Not many changes on day 3 ....
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Caption: And hey... the San Andreas thumbnail has changed
Now instead of a „“The Rock“ one man show , it advertises the movie with him and a woman in an action sequence - though handholding!
A Coincidence or is the Netflix algorithm changing the thumbnails it is using?
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Caption: Day 3 evening - 8.3.
La la land has entered the headlines.
It is a good movie but why now on the main stage?
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Caption: Romance movies are now essential parts of my Profile!
Algorithm reacts sometimes strange ways but the romance linked algorithm works well! Day 5 - 10.3.
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Caption: Day 6 - 11.3.
I have succesfully transformed my
profile - or the algorithm has- trending, suggestions and promoted movies are now dominated by action, kids and more and more romantic movies!
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Caption: Day 6
Romance movies i never saw before on my profile appear now „“under trending“ and other categories
Are these movies trending in Mexico? And why all these Harry Potter movies are trending at the moment?
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Caption: is interesting to observe how fast I was able to change my profile and movie selection.
But Every new romantic movie kicks out other movies displayed before. The number of movies never displayed before, demonstrates how much the algorithm influences me!
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Caption: In addition i was wondering if Netflix thumbnails really are selected based on personal information they have about me! This is difficult to assess yet, but i do see a lot of couples/ mann- woman thumbnails.
In my opinion more frequent then before!
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Caption: Day 9 -14.3.
Tomorrow is the last day of my play! No further big changes in my profile. Lots of romance, lots of thumbnails with couples, still some recommendations out of place.
The algorithm learns and works quite well. It is obviously not objective due to the fact that i now mainly see romantic movies!
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Caption: Day 10 and final day - 15.3.
End of algorithm play with mixed results.
Clearly visible changes in profile, trending and popular movies list as well as the ranking order of genres. Romantic movies presence exponentially increased!
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Caption: But there is still a variety of movies offered!
Some choices of the algorithm are not connected to my adding and liking tendencies!
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Caption: Popular netflix movies selection - objective or subjective?!?
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Caption: Day 11
Thumbnails showing lots of kissing couples. Did they change or is this a typical thumbnail for romantic movies?
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Caption: Summary:
The netflix algorithm is providing me with a selection of movies based on my a subjective interpretation of the machine and based on my personal profile and data collected from it. Netflix uses a matching percentage to underline the selection.
No criteria is shown how the percentage is calculated. netflix provides a short info describing how recommendations are created.
The algorithm is therefore providing me with a selection of the reality (reality=all movies on netflix)
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Caption: This can be seen as helpful and more effective for the viewer as he/ she gets something of interest and keeps less interesting movies out of sight!
But do I want this automated preselection? Personally - no, for many it sure is a helpful design!
algorithms can and are be used in education to repeatedly show elements the learner had problems with, makes mistakes or shows great interest!
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Caption: This is