The Paralysis of Choice

Possibility Is The Killer

Recently I've been getting into the videos of Joshua Morrison, known online as Jonny Mozza, a truly multifaceted 'content creator' (oh how I hate that term) who produces a diverse range of videos that encompass filmmaking, music and philosophical discussions. These are long-form, monologue-style videos that explore various aspects of creativity, philosophy and life in general. The videos are usually around 20-25 minutes long. They're great for listening to in the car or just generally unravelling at home. It's almost like a podcast, really. I particularly like his "Motivation for Musicians" series, which contains some real nuggets like "Is it selfish to listen to your own music?" and "It's better to write honest lyrics than good lyrics". Nice.

Today the YouTube algorithms suggested his latest video, Letting the algorithm dictate your taste and your personality. He's talking about the paralysis of choice we all experience on a daily basis, where today's media landscape creates isolated bubbles where algorithms curate content so precisely that individuals rarely encounter shared cultural touchpoints. I remember going to school and everyone talking about how they had just seen Winona Ryder in 'Reality Bites' (we were all in love with Wynona!), or heard the new 'Cure' album, or read the latest John Irving book. Blockbusters.
I'm not saying that blockbusters, or mainstream hits, films, books, TV shows, etc. were in any way better than niche-y stuff, but they were at least a kind of shared experience that you could talk about with your friends over lunch. "We used to find common ground through TV shows, but now we're all splintered off into our own little algorithm-driven universes".

And ‘splintered off’ means disconnected, means lonely, really. That's the feeling I'm getting more and more these days. We are all culturally lonely. And that leads to more loneliness in other aspects of our lives, as well.

Jonny Mozza also talks about the power of algorithms to decide for you what to watch, what you might like, and what rabbit hole to go down. "I never use the search function anymore - except to find something the YouTube algorithm has already shown me." Yeah, I see that happening to me too. The algorithms will serve up 'World Party' and I'll go... oh yeah, they were a great band. Why don't I listen to all the albums they recorded? That's fine (World Party were great), but when was the last time I went out to look for something completely on my own, not because it was suggested to me by some algorithm? How am I supposed to find new music, a new cool writer or filmmaker if YouTube and the other social networks don't put it in front of me?

In 2024, approximately 99,000 new songs were uploaded daily to streaming services like Spotify, totaling about 2.77 million songs each month. Sure, the same goes for TV shows, books, YouTube videos, etc etc . How are we ever going to wade through the sheer volume of content out there? And since we can't really rely on our friends and peers to tell us what they're listening to, watching, reading (they're all stuck in their little splintered worlds too), we let the algorithms decide for us. And so, after a while, "algorithms now shape our personalities". Look at your YouTube feed, your Spotify playlists, how much of it is really you and how much is the algorithms that have 'made you'?

Watching Letting the algorithm dictate your taste and personality made me think back to a song we released way back in 1992 called 'Possibility Is The Killer'. It's somehow what I'm writing about today, on a Sunday morning in early 2025. At the time I was reading Neil Postman's classic 'Amusing ourselves to Death' (such a classic! It came out in 1985) and it was very inspirational for many of the lyrics on this album (The Jeremy Days 'Re-Invent Yourself').

Anyway, check out the video and if you feel like it, have a listen to 'Possibility Is The Killer' as well. Interesting.
D