What
is Personalization, Customization and Agency
Personalization refers to the extent to
which content is tailored by a system to meet the needs of the user. An example
of this is Apple creating products to try and meet the needs of their
customers. This contrasts customization, which is the ability that the user has
to modify or add content to meet their needs. A customization example is
Android, allowing users to edit the open source code to create products for
themselves. The agency model refers to how the users are the source or sender
of all content, the premise of the psychological effects of customization
technologies.
The
ability to customize on Online Dating Sites is creating a competitive advantage
One idea of personalization vs
customization can be seen in AditiPaul’s article, which researches whether online dating or offline dating is
better for meeting partners. This study is relevant to the personalization and
customization, because online dating usually involves the user customizing a profile
of them, which is then matched with another user. The ability to customize a
profile is what gives online dating a competitive edge, as it allows users to
a) have a large selection of matches; b) find someone with similar interests
(profile customizations); and c) allow users to achieve quick intimacy with
matches. Overall, users customizing their profiles (as opposed to a site
personalizing a profile for a user) provide an avenue to facilitate online
dating.
Results
of a study show that many more people date Offline than Online
Aditi Paul’s study of 2923 adults showed
that the majority of people are still using offline methods to meet each other.
2643 of the adults in relationships said that they had met through offline
methods, while the remaining 280 adults said they met online. These results are
visualized through Figure 1 below. This
encourages the idea that people are still more trusting of traditional methods
to meet new people, though this trend is on the decrease. As people are having
more and more ability to customize their dating experience, so the popularity
for those selected methods is increasing.
People
meeting online are getting married less than those meeting Offline
Contrasting this initial result, Paul’s study
also revealed that more than 60% of couples met online was in non-marital relationships,
with only a minority reporting to being married. Paul presented three reasons
for this situation. Firstly, people dating online know they have a huge number
of potential matches (based on their customizations), so they are reluctant to
commit to one person. Secondly, online relationships take longer to develop
compared to offline initiated ones. Lastly, because of people’s distrust of
online sources, it takes a longer time for a trusting relationship to develop.
Paul says this is because 86% of users have reported to be concerned about
people falsifying their personal information and being deceptive about
themselves. This is where a problem with customization takes place, as people
have the power to present themselves however they want. This contrasts with a
system that would work on personalization, as the system would make create a
correct representation of the user based on information that it could gather
about the user.
The
trend for Online Customization is on the rise
Thus, Paul’s studies reveals some
interesting ideas about using customization in online dating, and the ways that
it can be beneficial for certain people, but detrimental for others. What is
evident is that the trend for people to use customization through online
methods is on the rise, but whether the information is completely correct is
another matter. Each user will have to make their own decision as to whether
they want to use customization (over personalization methods) when using online
systems.
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