Netflix is very aggressively pursuing the bottom line, and they're not doing it differently from a drug dealer. It's not random that the term "Netflix binge" exists.
Netflix interface is designed to shove content at the users' face at all costs, and in a very disrespectful way. Here there are some disgusting dark patterns:
- it took them a long time to give the user the option to remove movies from the watching now list
- there's no way to remove already watched movies from the panel; their trailer is even sometimes displayed in the top frame
- they randomize the global order of the horizontal lists, so that one needs every time to hunt the user list (watching now/my list) through all the panel
For a short time, I even experienced a bug where movies with (my) negative rating were not greyed out. I can imagine the engineering thinking "LOW PRIORITY!".
On my (fictional) "drug-dealing practices" rating, Netflix is high on top with Amazon.
You can still have nice features around it: separate list at the end of scroll with my old movies/shows (may be with number of times I watched it?). Once new seasons released send them all the way to to the top etc.
And I will be able to discover something new. At the moment it is cluttered with things I don't want to watch so lately I was not happy with Netflix at all.
You should see such patterns in your data.
(*who makes decisions)
I feel like I'm in a minority these days. My Netflix list is longer than I can ever hope to finish. I add stuff on before I finish watching current stuff.
They used to have all their content come from other studios, and they got to see how well it had done in the outside world at the time they were making their deals.
Now they're producing their own content, many of their previous background-noise or binge staples have moved elsewhere, and their productions are overwhelmingly lowest-common-denominator clickbait. There's still some quality stuff, but it's much harder to find than it used to be. If you're looking for an already-well-known quality show you can search (e.g. if you want to watch The Office a few years ago on Netflix). If you're looking for something new that's going to appeal to you, it's a lot harder to find in their sea of junk. Reviews can get you so far, but Netflix no longer then has any edge on alternative platforms which the reviewers are also talking about.
So the premise of "sooner or later pumping out junk food is going to turn off viewers" seems to click with your cohort (mine as well).
Considering that the commonly mentioned stats on TV watching show that a lot of people is watching (or maybe more accurately, keeping on) TV for hours every day, the latter extreme should be common.
In this sense, bombarding the audience with junk, or at least, pushing very hard, is a strategy that, I think, is productive, in the same sense as drug dealing strategies are.
I'm towards the former extreme, however, I'm certainly not immune from their strategy. I still feel some need to "chill" and therefore I somewhat tolerate their strategy (although, I also use it for learning languages, so there's another motivation). The irritation is building up, though.
Apple TV+ feels like it could be the new HBO in terms of curation, but we will see if they keep up the quality ratio.
My simple method of not wasting time on all this nonsense content coming out is to just wait for a bunch of people in my various networks to mention something about the show/movie. If multiple of them like something enough to mention it, then I probably will, so I just search it out after that.
If they are designed, they are designed to make you watch less.
I've noticed that Amazon Prime Video is doing the same thing with their Amazon Originals.
Has netflix ever committed to this vision? I would be hell bored if Netflix is filled with Oscar-ish films.
One thing to note here is, the tech community is inherently elitist, in a way many envision tech as a tool to doctrine its audience, telling them what is good or bad. I don't find this mindset, either helpful nor necessary.
Recommendation engine is the new soda machine, choices are offered, and you pick what delights you. Ofc you can choose water, but it is not the machine's fault some would like real coke.
I think it's a bit of straw man to conflate "the art form of film" with mainstream oscar bait.