Blog # 3 Filter Bubbles

On the internet, the filter bubbles are the personalized things that we see either on Google or Facebook. To be honest, I never realized how much our search engines impact on what we are seeing online. It was only after watching the TED talk with Eli Pariser; I learned that the filter bubbles are becoming more personalized. Also I learned how they were shaping how we interact online. For any subject or fact that I want to search for, it completely changes my filter bubble. The more I search online, the more personalized my filter bubble will be and it will show me the information that I want to see.

This is different from self-selected filter bubbles, like wearing headphones in a crowd because we decide to put the headphones in a crowd. Compared to our filter bubbles online, we are not able to choose what goes in there. It just depends on who we are and what we do and we are not able to see what is being edited in our bubble. Also, it is the companies that add and delete things in my online filter bubble. In Pariser’s discussion on TED talk, the reason he tells us to “Beware” is because everybody is starting to search the web with their own personalized filter bubbles. Eli also mentioned about a “passing of the torch” happening in our society. How in the past, it was the editors that controlled the flow of information. Now, with the internet, it seems to have changed to algorithmic gatekeepers controlling the flow of information.  As a result, the internet is showing us "what it thinks we want to see, but not necessarily what we need to see." With our personal filter bubbles in the way, we are unable to see the important information we need to see. Eli mentions that the filter bubble algorithms do not have “embedded ethics”.

Right now, I have no other idea on how to ameliorate online filter bubbles. The only thing that I believe could help would be to have people start searching for things in a broader perspective. By doing so, the filter bubble algorithms will allow a wider range of items to show up when searching online. The way I see it, the broader the search is, the bigger the filter bubble is.

When it comes to the virtual campfires, we are telling stories and communicating with people on the internet like Facebook or Twitter rather than actually meeting person to person. With this in thought, the internet has become the virtual campfire. Instead of gathering around an actual campfire, people have been gathering around their phones, TV’s, and especially their computers. The reason why this fits into the digital divide/ gradations of inclusion discussion because people are using the internet differently will see different information when searching for something. So we need to become more open to people/friends online. This will allow us to change our perspectives and allow us to see the whole image from all different perspectives. That in turn will open up our small filtered bubble to a larger bubble.