All My Disinterests

Posted on Wed 26 July 2023 in blog

My Android phone has a news feed app, which is helpfully named just “Google”. It serves news articles from various sources based on your Interests, which it tracks for you, but importantly, you can’t customize your interests. You can confirm an interest that it suggests for you, which I apparently have done three times. So, presenting for the first time, this complete list of my interests and disinterests, courtesy of “Google” (you know, the news feed app for Android):

Interests

  • Art
  • Design
  • Mindfulness

I am a little surprised to see baking, programming, guitar playing, guitar pedals, and climate change missing from this list, but I guess that an Interest gets populated here only when “Google” (you know, the news feed app for Android) shows me a story and I tap the ❤️ button to indicate my pleasure with that story or its topic, and I never tap the “☹️ Not interested in this topic” button on the same topic later.

That last bit might be acting as the Great Filter here, because I click the “☹️ Not interested in this topic” button a lot. While the “Interests” section of my preferences (which I am not allowed to add to) is sparsely populated, the “Not Interested” section has grown wild:

Disinterests

  • 2000 Mules
  • ALDI
  • Almond meal
  • Amazon Fire
  • Amazon Kindle
  • Amazon Kindle Oasis
  • Amazon Prime Video
  • Amazon.com
  • Angelina Jolie
  • AnnualCreditReport.com
  • 5:39
  • 93%
  • Apple Watch
  • Artificial intelligence
  • AT&T
  • Autumn leaf color
  • Avengers: Endgame
  • Baked potato
  • Beer
  • Ben Affleck
  • Bethesda Softworks
  • Bill Maher
  • Billy Collins
  • Bitcoin
  • Black Friday
  • Blockchain.com
  • Bloom County
  • Body image
  • Boston Dynamics
  • Bourbon whiskey
  • Bowmore
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer # Some of these are not accurate at all; for instance I am interested in this
  • Calvin and Hobbes # Ibid!
  • Cancer patient
  • Candy
  • Cast iron
  • Champagne
  • Channel 4
  • Charles III
  • Chicken sandwich
  • Cider
  • Citroën
  • Civilization # Unclear if this topic covers Sid Meier’s Civilization games or “civilization” per se…
  • Cocktail
  • Comic strip
  • Community
  • Confederate States of America
  • Costco Wholesale
  • Credit history
  • Daniel Craig
  • David Gilmour
  • DC Studios
  • DC Universe # I have to imagine that this one started out as an interest until Google (you know, the news app for Android) showed too many articles about it. I’ve worked on DCUniverse.com!
  • Deep frying
  • Dell Alienware Aurora
  • Dental braces
  • Diablo
  • Diablo III
  • Dilbert
  • Dinesh D’Souza
  • Disney+
  • Donald Trump
  • Doom Patrol
  • Dungeons & Dragons
  • Dunkin’
  • Ear # ?
  • Elizabeth II
  • Elon Musk
  • Epic Games
  • Eric Cartman
  • Eye color
  • Fallout
  • Family Feud
  • Frieza
  • Frisch’s Big Boy
  • Full-time job
  • Gin
  • Gluten-free diet
  • Google
  • Ground beef
  • Harley Benton
  • Harry Potter
  • Historical Fiction
  • Hunter Biden
  • Intelligence quotient
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Interview
  • iPhone
  • Irish whiskey
  • Israel
  • J. K. Rowling
  • Jada Pinkett Smith
  • James Bond
  • James Gunn
  • Jay Leno
  • Jay Leno’s Garage
  • Jeff Bezos
  • Jim Cramer
  • Joe Rogan
  • Joey Chestnut
  • Judi Dench
  • Kang the Conqueror
  • Kanye West
  • Khloé Kardashian
  • Kroger
  • Learning Italian
  • Liam Neeson
  • MacKenzie Scott
  • Magic: The Gathering
  • Mandalorians
  • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Martini
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe
  • Marvel Comics
  • Matthew Perry
  • McDonald’s
  • Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
  • Michael Heizer
  • Microsoft Windows # bet
  • Millennials
  • My Hero Academia
  • Netflix
  • Neymar
  • Nike
  • Nike Store
  • Nike World Headquarters
  • Non-fungible token
  • ONYX
  • Overwatch
  • Parent
  • Paul Hollywood
  • Peloton
  • Peppermint Mocha
  • Peter Safran
  • Phonograph
  • Pierce Brosnan
  • PlayStation 4
  • Pokémon GO
  • Portable audio player # I’d be interested in both of these topics from any source
  • Portable media player # that’s not desperately trying to sell me stuff…
  • Positive Grid
  • Prue Leith
  • Psychonauts 2
  • reCAPTCHA
  • Recruiter
  • Rick and Morty
  • Roger Waters
  • Rosie O’Donnell
  • Roth IRA
  • Scoliosis
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Sean Spicer
  • Self-checkout
  • Sharpening
  • Shoplifting
  • Simu Liu
  • Sony
  • Sony Walkman
  • Spectre
  • Spirit
  • Sports
  • Starbucks
  • Stardew Valley
  • Step Brothers
  • Steve Jobs
  • Subway
  • Sunscreen
  • Superhero
  • T. S. Eliot
  • The Conjuring
  • The Good Place
  • The Tonight Show
  • Tom Hiddleston
  • Tom Hovey
  • Tortilla press
  • Toxoplasma gondii
  • Trader Joe’s (Grocery store company)
  • Trader Joe’s
  • TSMC
  • Uno
  • Vegeta
  • Vice President
  • Video game
  • Walmart
  • Walt Disney World® Resort
  • Wanda Maximoff
  • Warren Buffett
  • Web3
  • Wendy’s Company
  • Whisky
  • William Jackson Harper
  • William Tanuwijaya
  • Wine
  • Workforce
  • Zodiac

Sources

  • AOL.com
  • Apartment Therapy
  • Artnet News
  • Axios
  • Bam Smack Pow
  • Big Think
  • Blizzard Watch
  • Bloomberg.com
  • Boing Boing
  • Bored Panda
  • Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News
  • Business Insider
  • BuzzFeed
  • BuzzFeed News
  • CBR
  • CBS News
  • CBS Sports
  • Cheezburger
  • CNBC
  • CNET
  • CNN.com
  • Comic Book
  • Cosmic Book News
  • Daily Express
  • Daily Wire
  • Deadline
  • DEV Community
  • Digital Trends
  • Dwell
  • EatingWell
  • Entertainment Weekly
  • Entrepreneur
  • Fast Company
  • FinanceBuzz
  • Fortune
  • Fox News
  • Good e-Reader
  • Grow from Acorns + CNBC
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Heroic Hollywood
  • HuffPost
  • 195 Rock
  • IFLScience
  • In The Know
  • Inc.com
  • Inside the Magic
  • Insider
  • Inverse
  • Kirbie’s Cravings
  • Lifehacker
  • MarketWatch
  • Medical News Today
  • Microsoft News
  • Mildly Meandering
  • Military Times
  • MindBodyGreen
  • MSN
  • MTO News
  • MusicRadar
  • National Catholic Register
  • National Catholic Reporter
  • NBC News
  • Neuroscience News
  • New Scientist
  • New York Post
  • Page Six
  • PC Gamer
  • PEOPLE.com
  • PETA Headlines - PETA
  • Pinch of Yum
  • Pokémon GO
  • Pokemon GO Hub
  • Politico
  • Polygon
  • Psychology Today
  • Reddit
  • Rockstar Games
  • Scary Mommy
  • ScienceAlert
  • SciTechDaily
  • Screen Rant
  • Slate
  • StyleCaster
  • talkSPORT
  • Tasting Table
  • TechRadar
  • The Archaeologist
  • The Atlantic
  • The Blast
  • The Cheat Sheet
  • The Daily Beast
  • The Daily Dot
  • The Direct | Entertainment
  • The Hill
  • The Hollywood Reporter
  • The New York Times
  • The Sun
  • The Takeout
  • The US Sun
  • The Verge
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • The Washington Post
  • TheNextWeb
  • TheStreet
  • TMZ.com
  • TODAY
  • Upworthy
  • USA Today
  • VICE
  • View from the Wing
  • WANE
  • We Got This Covered
  • VICE
  • View from the Wing
  • WANE
  • We Got This Covered
  • Well+Good
  • WYRK
  • Yahoo
  • YouTube

Types of Info

  • Sports updates
  • Stories
  • Streaming recommendations

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