Online regulation & Algorithms & Information Silos

I found the Ted talk by Eli Pariser about filter bubbles especially interesting. I think I found this discussion so interesting because it is something that is so prevalent in our daily lives online. Every day we use Google, log on to Facebook and every day our feeds are filtered by what the web thinks we are interested in. This excessive filtering edits out things we don’t click on a lot, making it so that our feed is designed for us specifically. And while this is good in a way it is also limiting us from seeing things we might want to see but we don’t even know we are interested in, because we aren’t given the chance to choose. It is automatically filtered out and we are living in this bubble. If we are caught in this bubble it makes it so that we aren’t being exposed to challenging things and different points of view on the Internet. Pariser says, “Algorithms have encoded in them a sense of the public life - of civic responsibility.” The Internet should be a place that connects us - that introduces us to new ideas, people, and perspectives. It’s a shame that these filter bubbles are essentially isolating us from the world because they think they know what we want to see. We don’t have the control anymore. I have experienced this filter bubble with Facebook because I have noticed that the posts I like or click on are the ones that keep showing up on my feed. It might filter out other people that I might be interested in but won’t get a chance to see. Just because I like one thing a lot doesn’t mean I don’t want to be exposed to other stuff. The internet is like your cocky older brother that thinks it knows all.