personalization
A ritual of unearthing sanitized selves from mountains of customer data to stoke purchasing desires. It promises freedom of choice while algorithms nudge you toward what they really want you to buy. It vows special treatment for each customer, yet ends up funneling everyone toward the same products. Hailed as the marketer’s holy grail, the more you seek it, the more you’re milked by it. Under the guise of convenience, privacy is perpetually at risk. The true first person pronoun here isn’t the customer’s but the company’s profit.