This week we discussed the political stakes and cultural implications of space, place and community online. For this blog watch Eli Pariser’s TEDtalk and discuss how filter bubbles are shaping online interactions and space. How is this different from a self selected filter bubble such as wearing headphones in a crowd? Why does Pariser tell us to “Beware!”? Beyond the steps he prescribes in his talk and on his website, what do you suggest can be done to ameliorate online filter bubbles? What can be said about “Virtual Campfires”? How does the pheromone of filter bubbles fit into the digital divide/gradations of inclusion discussion?
After watching Eli Pariser’s TEDtalk, I learned a lot about filter bubbles and how much we aren’t actually seeing on the internet. Filter bubbles basically take your cookies on your computer and based on passed websites you have gone to, your gender, you location and other factors, the internet then decides what information it is going to show you. Honestly I find filter bubbles to be terrifying, it is a way of preventing us from learning or seeing information based on what a computer thinks we should or should not see. When we Google search something, the results I will see are going to be much different than the results someone else will see. He gave the example of two people, one who liked to travel and who was relatively less involved in politics and then another man who was well education and versed. I forget what they typed into the search engine but the results were very different. The man who was well educated got information about politics and government while the other man got travel information. What if the man who got travel information really wanted the information the other man saw? I just don’t like the idea that a computer is choosing what we learn. This is what Pariser wants us to “Beware” of, the lack of information we are actually seeing is frightening.
The idea of filter bubbles is much different than wearing headphones in a crowd. Both are blocking out “noise” or “information” but with headphones it is self controlled and that person is choosing to omit certain information. The problem with filter bubbles is that many people are unaware they even exist. We aren’t choosing to filter our searches on the computer for the most part, especially if people are unaware they are being filtered. Though Pariser gives a thorough list of things we can do to prevent the internet from creating unwanted filter bubbles we can also do other things to prevent them. We can look for information in newspapers, on tv, and stay up to date on what is important and what we should know about. Choosing to find information from places like NPR provides us with relatively unbiased and unfiltered information. Giving out as little personal information as possible also can help with our filter bubbles. I choose to use multiple browsers to do searching on and I find that to be extremely helpful. Google Chrome will often give me different information than FireFox or Safari. And I think most importantly the best thing you can do is know that filter bubbles are out there, be aware when searching the internet that a lot of the information out there you are not seeing.Try changing key words and searching multiple times to come up with different results, that usually can make a difference in what you find.
I really enjoyed this websites description of filter bubbles, I like the pictures and the images and it does a good job of presenting information about filter bubbles in an enjoyable way http://dontbubble.us/
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