(Image credit: Shutterstock; Gemini)
Netflix constantly claims to know what I like. It thinks it understands my viewing habits to the point where it can confidently serve up movies and shows it knows I will willingly lap up. But is that actually true?Most of us open the app with at least a vague idea of what we want to watch—scrolling past endless rows of recommendations or searching directly for a specific title. But as an experiment, I decided to lean into the machine and spend a full week letting the Netflix algorithm take total, unyielding control of my viewing."Today’s Top Picks for You" and "Because You Watched" suddenly became my best friends, because without them, I was utterly lost. I stopped ignoring them and actually paid attention to the content being directed straight into my eyeballs. That new show friends kept raving about? Off-limits. The next season of the series I started months ago and wanted to jump back into? Strictly forbidden. Instead, I was stuck watching only what Netflix placed in front of me. Here’s how that experiment actually went.More of the same, until that became a problemThings started off well enough. Thanks to my (and my partner’s) eclectic tastes, Netflix served up a swath of great movies and TV shows. Some were aimed at me, some at her, but their appearance was always entirely logical. British comedies for me to binge on? Check. Quirky documentaries for my partner to sink into? Check. Blockbuster films such as "Barbie" and "The Fall Guy" to watch on a Saturday night? Check.I started with the first tailored recommendation beyond the general "Show of the Week" being pushed on everyone: "The Middle," a series I’d never watched but always intended to. It was as if Netflix could read my mind. Six episodes later, I was a fan, but I needed to switch things up.
