Living in an FYP World

It's not just TikTok-recommendation algorithms are defining our digital experiences, putting us in individual universes built by unseen hands.

- MARK WILSON

A woman in leggings and Ugg boots poses for a selfie. A blond millennial strides along a porch in a leopard-print blouse. A leather recliner stretches across a snug living room. The images scroll by under one's thumb, a blur of shoppable scenes.

I'm getting an early look at the new Inspire section on Amazon's smartphone app. Set to launch this year, it's the company's response to TikTok: a personalized, machine-curated feed of user videos, all with "buy" links. Despite having little interest in the actual products on each page, I find myself lured in. "It's one of those things," confesses the Amazon spokesperson who arranged the demo, "that can [take you] down a happy rabbit hole."

These days, everyone's rabbit hole is a little different. Whereas in the earliest years of the internet, when each web page, icon, or piece of content was meticulously designed and more or less static, what we see online today is increasingly created in real time and tailored to individual users. The product listings on your Amazon homepage change according to your shopping habits. The songs queued up by your Spotify Discover Weekly playlists are tuned to your latest listens and likes. Your Google search results account for your late-night web surfing.

TikTok has taken that idea even further with its For You Page (FYP) feed. The eccentric, confusing, and captivating mix of rapid-fire scenes on your FYP have been optimized in response to your every tap, pause, and glance online. The result is a sort of customized cable TV channel, reflecting your (supposed) tastes.