‘Have I been influenced, or is this actually me?’ How personal taste fell out of fashion

Personal taste has been hollowed out by the algorithmic feeds that now mediate most cultural consumption, leaving people struggling to form their own preferences, according to a new analysis of the digital landscape. The internet has fundamentally altered how opinions and beliefs are formed, and a growing body of commentary suggests it has also wrecked the capacity to develop individual taste [1]. Streaming and social media platforms, programmed to serve content based on prior activity, have synthesized and automated preference to the point where users no longer choose what to consume but instead take what they are given [1]. The sheer volume of this tailored content leaves little mental capacity to digest or assess it [1]. This represents a stark departure from earlier eras. In the 1970s, fashion was defined by individuality, with Vogue declaring there were "no rules in the fashion game now" as a flood of affordable synthetic clothing and diverse styles—from bell-bottoms to androgynous glam rock—allowed for personal expression [2]. The decade saw the rise of the anti-conformist casual chic approach and designers like Diane von Fürstenberg, whose wrap dress became a symbol of women's liberation [2]. Today, by contrast, the cultural landscape is shaped by what Kyle Chayka's 2024 book Filterworld describes as the promotion of the "least ambiguous, least disruptive and perhaps least meaningful pieces of culture" by algorithms [1]. Ione Gamble, founder of the publication Polyester, which uses the John Waters quote "Have faith in your own bad taste" as its tagline, argues that people are "always being told what to like and what not to like rather than being able to seek it out for ourselves" [1]. She adds that this dynamic is "making us all feel powerless – we don't have the power to train our own taste because there's not the room in the day any more" [1]. The novelist Nicola Dinan has likened her own cultural consumption in this environment to being "a driverless car" [1]. The mechanics of this shift are increasingly visible. Instagram, a Meta-owned platform launched in 2010, grew to 1 billion users by June 2018 and now shapes visual culture through its algorithmic feed and Stories feature, which is used by 500 million people daily [9]. On the music front, Spotify's most-streamed artists list has been dominated by figures like Drake and Taylor Swift, with Drake amassing over 170 million units sold and Swift becoming the platform's most-streamed artist in history [8][6]. The discovery of new music, however, is often manipulated. The marketing firm Chaotic Good Projects has acknowledged using "trend simulation"—running numerous social media accounts to post content soundtracked by clients' songs—to synthesize virality for acts like Geese [1]. One industry insider estimated that "90% of what you see on the internet is advertising in disguise" [1]. At street level, the effect is tangible. A stylist named Helena, 25, described the disorienting experience of seeing her personal aesthetic turned into a microtrend: "I hate when I see something that's my vibe being turned into a microtrend – I'm, like, have I been influenced or is this actually me?" [1]. A vintage clothing seller on London's Portobello Road noted a significant uptick in younger customers "wanting to fit in – they want to look like they belong," a concept she finds alien to the ethos of vintage shopping [1].