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I literally just watched Catch Me if You Can last night. Haven't in a while. Have noticed before where I just watched or did something and the next day see a ne

I literally just watched Catch Me if You Can last night. Haven't in a while. Have noticed before where I just watched or did something and the next day see a news feed item aligning with that. Is it just a coincidence? Something like this seems just too much to be a coincidence. Some how ad targeting? Though I watched through AppleTV, can't remember if through HBO, Amazon Disney+ or Netflix as I use all the apps all the time interchangeable. Ad targeting would seem most likely but unlike when viewing in a browser where I'd expect to be target seems odd when the interaction wasn't in a browser. Or I suppose it could be that these articles are appearing coincidentally, and just having watching/done something very recently my mind recognizes much more than it would otherwise?

heavymark 7y ago
Or another maybe more likely option I guess is that I watched it because it was being featured on one of the app platforms, and then news feed apps/sites know what has been featured and that a lot of people are probably watching a certain show and thus write an article or share an old article that will be top of mind for people. I guess that may be most likely in this particular case.
yodon 7y ago
It's unclear if the parent comment is sarcasm or a real comment. Hacker News is certainly not feeding articles to you based on what movies you watched last night.
akhilcacharya 7y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequency_illusion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Fre...
FPGAhacker 7y ago
See https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/baader-meinhof-phenomenon.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human...
stevula 7y ago
Baader–Meinhof phenomenon
chrisco255 7y ago
The phenomenon you mention last, is called reticular activation. It's the same thing that occurs when you buy a new car, and suddenly you notice the model you picked has become more popular on the roadways. It's not that sales picked up after you bought it, it's just that your brain now plucks it out of the environment automatically and effortlessly.
- dmix 7y ago
  Our brains are exceptionally good at pattern matching. The problem is so much of it happens automatically and "subconsciously" that we tend to attribute it to grander schemes. A good amount of religious motivation has been based on this disconnect in our brains. And plenty of quack science (speaking of conning people).
- dmoy 7y ago
  It's the same thing that causes people to think their phones are always listening to them and serving ads or whatever based on that. "Well I was just talking about <insert popular movie> and then I got an ad for it!"
  - WFBeach 7y ago
    Except the fact that Facebook's app may not listen to you doesn't mean advertisers they integrate with don't have sdks in other apps that do / have in the past. So yes. Phone likely is actually listening to you if you ran into this and actually literally never searched for bell bottom shaped cast iron skillets but see them in your ads now.
  - cma 7y ago
    What actually happens there usually is whoever you were talking with googles it, they know you were together and might have talked about it through fine grained location data, so now they target ads at you about it as well since the other person’s search immediately after an interaction with you is a good indicator you may have discussed it or you may be interested in it. No need for the mic.
    - 7y ago
brm 7y ago
I've noticed something similar as well. I like to think of it as algorithmically assisted bader meinhoff syndrome. It used to be that you heard of something and then saw it because your brain was now aware of it. Now your brain is still aware of what you've just read but digital systems are also looking to feed you things. They're not working together but having two things working at once makes it happen slightly more frequently than if your brain alone was just working to bader meinhoff you. But now your brain sees more patterns and believes it's getting "bader meinhoffed" more often. It's purely a speculative hypothesis and I'm happy to be proven wrong but it's the best answer I've been able to arrive at for a sort of glitch in reality that I've experienced recently as well.
nkrisc 7y ago
If you hadn't watched the movie recently you might have just skimmed past an article about Abagnale without a second thought.
bryanrasmussen 7y ago
I literally just watched it several months ago - maybe 3 - and saw the same news feed item.
jfengel 7y ago
Netflix also suggested it to me last night. (It had been on my list for a while, but Netflix showed it near the front.) It sounds like he's "trending" and the various services are all feeding on that.
haunter 7y ago
Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity

heavymark 7y ago

Or another maybe more likely option I guess is that I watched it because it was being featured on one of the app platforms, and then news feed apps/sites know what has been featured and that a lot of people are probably watching a certain show and thus write an article or share an old article that will be top of mind for people. I guess that may be most likely in this particular case.

yodon 7y ago

It's unclear if the parent comment is sarcasm or a real comment. Hacker News is certainly not feeding articles to you based on what movies you watched last night.

akhilcacharya 7y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequency_illusion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Fre...

FPGAhacker 7y ago

See https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/baader-meinhof-phenomenon.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human...

stevula 7y ago

Baader–Meinhof phenomenon

chrisco255 7y ago

The phenomenon you mention last, is called reticular activation. It's the same thing that occurs when you buy a new car, and suddenly you notice the model you picked has become more popular on the roadways. It's not that sales picked up after you bought it, it's just that your brain now plucks it out of the environment automatically and effortlessly.

dmix 7y ago
Our brains are exceptionally good at pattern matching. The problem is so much of it happens automatically and "subconsciously" that we tend to attribute it to grander schemes. A good amount of religious motivation has been based on this disconnect in our brains. And plenty of quack science (speaking of conning people).
dmoy 7y ago
It's the same thing that causes people to think their phones are always listening to them and serving ads or whatever based on that. "Well I was just talking about <insert popular movie> and then I got an ad for it!"
- WFBeach 7y ago
  Except the fact that Facebook's app may not listen to you doesn't mean advertisers they integrate with don't have sdks in other apps that do / have in the past. So yes. Phone likely is actually listening to you if you ran into this and actually literally never searched for bell bottom shaped cast iron skillets but see them in your ads now.
- cma 7y ago
  What actually happens there usually is whoever you were talking with googles it, they know you were together and might have talked about it through fine grained location data, so now they target ads at you about it as well since the other person’s search immediately after an interaction with you is a good indicator you may have discussed it or you may be interested in it. No need for the mic.
  - 7y ago

brm 7y ago

I've noticed something similar as well. I like to think of it as algorithmically assisted bader meinhoff syndrome. It used to be that you heard of something and then saw it because your brain was now aware of it. Now your brain is still aware of what you've just read but digital systems are also looking to feed you things. They're not working together but having two things working at once makes it happen slightly more frequently than if your brain alone was just working to bader meinhoff you. But now your brain sees more patterns and believes it's getting "bader meinhoffed" more often. It's purely a speculative hypothesis and I'm happy to be proven wrong but it's the best answer I've been able to arrive at for a sort of glitch in reality that I've experienced recently as well.

nkrisc 7y ago

If you hadn't watched the movie recently you might have just skimmed past an article about Abagnale without a second thought.

bryanrasmussen 7y ago

I literally just watched it several months ago - maybe 3 - and saw the same news feed item.

jfengel 7y ago

Netflix also suggested it to me last night. (It had been on my list for a while, but Netflix showed it near the front.) It sounds like he's "trending" and the various services are all feeding on that.

haunter 7y ago

Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity