Taste or Algorithm?

Who decides what we like?

The battle of taste vs. algorithm began the first time I saw a pair of Birkenstocks. I was in high school. My guidance counselor and her daughter told me, “Morgan, you would love these shoes.”

I took one look at them and thought they looked like something Jesus would have worn in the Middle Ages. Definitely not something a seventeen-year-old girl would willingly put on her feet.

They were ugly.

Then 2016 happened. Vegan YouTube, yoga culture, and the internet’s version of “hippie girl” style started making their way into my life. Suddenly, the same sandals I once made fun of started looking… kind of cool.

I bought a pair and ended up wearing them for the next 10 years. I couldn’t believe that at one point I didn’t like them.

When I was younger, I loved to play dress up, and I would dig through our dress-up bin and layer all of the clothes. I would imagine who I was in them. Then, someone along the way, I started dressing like the internet. It became harder to know what my personal style truly was.

This begs the question, How do we know what our own ideas are vs. what we consume online?

The line between what I genuinely like and what I have simply seen enough times online has become blurry.

One minute, something feels completely random. The next, it is in my TikTok feed, saved to my Pinterest board, and sitting in my shopping cart. The influence may be subtle, but the result is not.

Recently, I was with a group of friends, and we started talking about fashion. Everyone seemed to be saying the same thing. We are over the capsule wardrobes and the “old money” aesthetic that dominated 2023. Now, we wanted more color, more whimsy, more personality. The funny part is that we all described it as our own personal evolution.

But was it?

Every few years, it feels like we collectively decide to become a new version of ourselves. One day I am building a French minimalist wardrobe, and the next I am searching for bold patterns, colorful pieces, and something that feels more playful. I tell myself my style is changing, but sometimes I wonder if I am changing or if the internet is simply handing me a new identity to try on.

And it is not just clothes. Digital influence has a way of slipping into everything: our routines, our homes, our makeup bags, our opinions, even the way we imagine the kind of person we want to become.

A couple of weeks ago, I was a bridesmaid in a wedding with my sister and a family friend. My sister, who is in medical school, has almost no interest in social media. She deleted Facebook years ago and has never used TikTok.

My friend and I, on the other hand, both spend plenty of time on TikTok, and you could see it immediately in our makeup bags.

At some point, we had both found the same kind of bridal makeup influencer and quietly adopted her entire routine. The skincare products, the order, the techniques, all of it. Our makeup looks great, but it is clear who has a social media account and who didn’t.

Makeup might seem like a small example, but it is part of someone’s everyday routine.

That is powerful.

But what happens when influential marketing goes beyond product and begins to shift ideologies, thought processes, and core values we have as a society?

“Subliminal stimuli can facilitate conscious processing of related information (Van den Bussche et al., 2009), change our current mood (Monahan et al., 2000), boost our motivation (Aarts et al., 2008), and can even alter our political attitudes and voting intentions (Hassin et al., 2007; Weinberger and Westen, 2008).”

In simple terms, research suggests that information doesn’t always have to be consciously noticed to affect us. Repeated exposure to certain messages can influence how we feel, what motivates us, and even how we process information later on. While we like to think our opinions and preferences are entirely our own, studies show that subtle cues in our environment can shape our decisions in ways we may not immediately recognize.

This is what makes social media so powerful. Every day we see trends and inspiration online. They may seem insignificant, but over time, they can influence what we buy, how we see ourselves, and even how we think about the world around us.

So it’s no shock that subliminal messaging has a distinct impact on our lives, but back to my original question: how do we know what our own ideas are vs. what we consume as we engage with content online?

This will be the question I consistently ask myself in my journey of self-discovery and establishing a sense of personal style. Is this what I like, or did I just see it online? Trends will come and go. By the time you buy and use a product, the marketing teams are working overtime to get you to purchase something else.

When there is nothing inherently harmful about a trend, it’s important to know where it’s coming from. Our personal style is a part of our identity.

Maybe the goal isn’t to be completely uninfluenced. I don’t think any of us really are. We are shaped by the people we love, the places we live, and the media we consume.

But I do think there is value in pausing before we rebrand our lives again.

Not because trends are bad, but because identity is too personal to be outsourced entirely to an algorithm.

So maybe the better question isn’t, “Was I influenced?”

Maybe the better question is, “Does this still feel like me when no one else is watching?”

Less or Morgan