So much more than a "like"

USING DATA RESPONSIBLY

Customization has become de rigueur in the web technology world, and so the trend towards prolific data collection and algorithm-controlled experiences continues unabated. Not to be confused with "big data" in marketing, the data I'm referring to lives in the ecosystem of the product you're creating to hopefully deliver a better experience. For example, Facebook uses data from whom you interact with most to customize your news feed.

This is rather uncomfortable for some people, and Frog predicted a backlash in their first tech trend prediction for 2014. They announced the rise of products and services that center around user anonymity. Now we're seeing the massive popularity of self-destructing images with Snapchat, and now self-destructing text messages with startup Confide. These services don't want your data, and they're helping you to erase any evidence of it.

However, product designers of customized services are responsible to use the data collected to improve the product on offer. Along this line of thinking I've decided to include a "like" option for each creative work featured on Tomorrow and Today, because I would eventually like to create a valuable service for users on the platform… very excited about it and more to come on that.

THE VALUE OF HUMANS

The content you'll find on Tomorrow and Today reveals the network of creative work and activity happening behind closed doors and on the street. Focusing on places of massive cultural transition, each place featured on the site has its own personality and experience.

We can not rely on a machine to make these connections with elements of chance and synchronicity. A human touch is required.

In a New York Times Bits article analyzing the monetary value of human contact, Quentin Hardy writes, "We’re moving towards a ‘post-automated’ world, where the valuable thing about people will be their emotional content.” The human mind and emotions are incredibly complex and machines have not caught up yet. In the meantime, human analysis, curation and creation will continue to be more valuable.

"Word of mouth" is still the most influential marketing tool. We crave the recommendations from people with the most intimate knowledge about us, and these suggestions rate much higher on the influence scale of what we might buy or do.

This website Not Recommended for You plays with the idea that actual human beings can provide a more intimate recommendation than anyone else. But imagine if you could have this site customized for you by all of your friends and family? SO much better than a robot.