To affinity and beyond: Clicking as communicative gesture on the experimentation platform

Abstract

This article analyzes how users' engagements with digital platforms through the act of clicking are coded as meaningful for the production of affinity, a way of assessing identity amongst users. Drawing on an understanding of identity as related to the Latin idem-or same-this article explores how streaming media company Netflix uses click-based A/B testing to create “taste doppelgängers” that live in “taste communities” and help structure the recommendations, home pages, and image thumbnails that users experience. Clicks are figured as communicative gestures that platform engineers decode and analyze as part of ongoing experiments for refining algorithms and interface design. Drawing additionally on an analysis of Netflix's recent move into interactive television-in particular, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch-this article ultimately argues for attention to how platforms like Netflix treat users as test subjects for the purposes of constructing idem-based affinities.