Ideology of personalization

In Lecture on Monday, one of the definitions of ideology (Althusser’s) was a “representation of the imaginary relation of individuals to their real conditions of existence, a necessary way of relating to the real.” (this is a rough citation from lecture). On this note, many of the articles this week seem to point out a common ideology of personalization and individuality about new media. Tara McPherson shows this personalization as a both a corporate marketing tool and a real part of the experience of surfing the web. She describes the web experience as a the feeling of individual choice in navigating ever-present spaces. Yet McPherson also notes that Microsoft appropriates this feeling when it asks “Where do you want to go today?” (203). In fact, all three of her principles: volitional mobility, scan and search, and transformation, all are partially dependent on an "free individual" ideology. Manovich, whose concept of navigable space seems very similar to McPherson’s first two principle of volitional mobility and scan and search, delves into this ideology more explicitly. In computer games, Manovich says that “the dominance of spatial exploration exemplifies the classical mythology in which the individual discovers his identity and builds character by moving thorough space.” (271) He also characterizes web browsers, which are un-coincidentally named “navigator” and “internet explorer” as privileging “a single user navigating through and unknown territory rather than a member of a group…”(273) These articles really opened up to me the extent to which computers posit their users as individuals: the personal computer, my documents, etc. Could this be an ideology in the Althusser definition, in that “customization” helps people relate to their machines? Mcpherson says herself that “The web as a mediator between human and machine…” (201)

It would be interesting in section to discuss how this trend in new media that was referenced in several articles relates to the larger push towards customization in advertising and the media in general. Is the move towards, for example, TV commercials which address spectators individually and separate them from the masses, and niche markets in magazines part of the same trend? Is it simply a continuation of a traditional mythology of individual exploration as Manovich suggests? Or, is the prevalence of this ideology outside of new media a sign of the influence of software structure and ideology on society as a whole?