What does your Spotify "daylist" reveal about you?Horror Probably nothing.
Daylist is a singular playlist that updates and changes to reflect your so-called listening habits at different times of the day. As the playlist refreshes, its title changes, adding words to describe what kind of morning — or afternoon, or whenever it happens to be — the algorithm thinks you typically have. Some examples include "lyrical delicate thursday morning" and "chill study funk pop morning."
SEE ALSO: TikTok is criticizing young girls who shop at Sephora. They're missing the point.The tool — part of Spotify's ever-expanding recommendation machine — launched back in September, but an Instagram challenge reading, "Don't tell me your astrological sign; I want you to go into Spotify, search for your daylist, and post the title it gave you," has brought it the top of feeds (and minds).
The trend urges users not to share their music taste, but to identify with nebulous algorithmically-generated terms to describe a similarly algorithmically-generated playlist. The comparison to astrological signs suggests that these words reveal something mysterious and true. But Spotify users lack the context to understand what these words even mean.
For example, earlier, my daylist read, "floaty r&b thursday morning" and featured the likes of Baby Keem and Steve Lacy. Now it's "rage angelic thursday afternoon" and lists a combination of Hozier, Troye Sivan, and the typical two artists I've never listened to before that Spotify incessantly recommends to me, Reneé Rapp and Madison Beer. It's unclear what floaty, rage, or angelic are supposed to mean, or whether even the platform itself has a definition for them.
"Daylist updates frequently, bringing together the niche music and microgenres you typically stream at certain times of the day and week. You'll get new tracks at every update, plus a new title that sets the mood of your daylist," a Spotify spokesperson told Mashable in September.
But the lure of analyzing what does this reveal about meis intoxicating. The daylist exercise supposes what so many social media algorithms do, that we can get a cut-and-dried identity from the internet without much reflection. In the New Yorker, Kyle Chayka wrote about algorithmic anxiety, the sensation of "constantly contend[ing] with machine estimations of [our] desires." The mental gymnastics to make meaning of our daylists is yet another example of algorithmic anxiety, and it steers us away from forming our own identities in offline ways.
Forget daylists. I want to know a song that is meaningful to you and why.
Topics Instagram Music Memes
Can an app help reduce your mental load as a new parent?Taylor Swift has the best reaction when fans get engaged at concertTrump's meeting with Putin was so bad that people are calling it the #TreasonSummitApple Event: Apple's new Mac Studio costs $8,000 maxed out — monitor not includedWordle answers from March 7 to March 14, ranked'The Andy Warhol Diaries' review: Capturing a complicated queer iconCreative kid finds adorable loophole in her mom's no fake nails ruleApple Event: 'Peek performance' was for 'ultra' peopleConor McGregor gets slammed for Instagram post about Putin'The Andy Warhol Diaries' review: Capturing a complicated queer iconDonald Trump Dalek is proof that Londoners sure know how to protestApple Event: Apple's new Mac Studio costs $8,000 maxed out — monitor not includedGoogle Pixel users can now use live captions during callsActivision Blizzard, Epic Games, and more cut off Russia'The Office' writers share the IRL experience that inspired Michael's koi pond fallAnderson Cooper slams Trump's press conference with Putin as 'disgraceful'Apple launches new Magic Mouse and matching keyboardWordle answers Feb. 28Apple's Universal Control for Macs and iPads to release soonLimeWire is coming back as an NFT marketplace Far too many men are sharing their stories online of having sex with a coconut BBC newsman totally hates his life because he has to report on surfing dogs Twitter hack shows why social media needs cybersecurity regulations Bill Murray saw 'Groundhog Day' on Broadway last night and was extremely Bill Murray Adobe Photoshop is exposing your badly edited images Facebook donated to members of Congress who refused to condemn QAnon Americans asked Google a bunch of unintentionally funny election questions this week Giant inflatable chicken with Trump’s hairdo lands near White House Google discontinues Nest Secure alarm system Jennifer Lawrence seriously had a 'Kardashian tent' on the set of her latest film iPhone 12 and 12 Pro review roundup: Here's what critics are saying 'Fast and Furious' franchise will cross the finish line with 11th film YAS KWEENS! 'Broad City' now has a line of sex toys Joanna Newsom and Andy Samberg welcome their first child Young voters, you have more power than you realize. Use it. Why NASA is bringing some of this asteroid back to Earth The one type of relationship that all women definitely aren't swiping for J.K. Rowling rips into Donald Trump and Fox News with 2 brutally effective tweets The deepfake apocalypse never came. But cheapfakes are everywhere. A guide to Vladimir Putin's undeniable masculinity