Taste has always been subtle. It teaches belonging, exclusion, and alignment without explicit instruction. Historically, it required apprenticeship, immersion, and local communities. One learned what “fit” by moving within a field — by repeated exposure, imitation, and recognition.
Platforms change all of this. They automate the training of taste, scaling it globally, continuously, and invisibly.
From Apprenticeship to Recommendation
In traditional cultural fields, taste emerged slowly:
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repeated exposure to forms
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correction through peer recognition
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gradual absorption of norms
Platforms replace this apprenticeship with algorithmic recommendation:
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feeds constantly surface what is “likely to be liked”
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metrics reward recognisability over novelty
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obscure forms are filtered out before they can be grasped
The result is taste as algorithmic pressure, not social discovery.
Style as the Unit of Selection
Platforms do not care about content per se. They care about forms that propagate easily.
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tone, pacing, and visual rhythm become primary determinants of viability
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repetition and recognisability reinforce patterns
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stylistic alignment is amplified; deviation is suppressed
Subversive or experimental styles may appear briefly, but they are quickly absorbed, neutralised, or discarded. Taste becomes a field of statistical survival, not aesthetic judgment.
Coordination Without Awareness
Algorithmic aesthetics train alignment without consciousness. Participants often feel:
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belonging
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recognition
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“this just feels right”
Yet this feeling is a product of systemic training, not personal preference. Taste now operates at scale to align millions, creating mass coordination without deliberation.
Convergence and Flattening
The automation of taste produces convergence:
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genres flatten
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tones homogenise
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novelty is tolerated only if easily absorbed into existing patterns
Paradoxically, the appearance of diversity is maintained — different content circulates, but the underlying stylistic pressures are uniform. Platforms make cultural coordination predictable, measurable, and optimisable.
The Subversive Challenge
Algorithmic aesthetics are powerful because they act before interpretation. They shape:
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what is noticeable
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what is enjoyable
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what feels belonging or exclusion
This means that subversion cannot rely on content alone; it must intervene in form, rhythm, and affect — in the style of intelligibility itself.
Closing
Taste is no longer merely personal or social. It is automated coordination: continuous, invisible, and scaled. To participate in platforms is to be trained, whether one realises it or not.
The next post will examine how this coordination is measured and reinforced, showing why engagement is not about agreement, but about alignment.
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