The internet speeds up our retreat into a confirmatory bubble
Summary
- In spite of the huge array of viewpoints the internet gives us access to, the algorithms nudge us towards things that we already like.
Details
- Often we don't even realise that this is happening to us
References
Quotes
Making matters worse, many social media sites tailor our Internet experience to show us more of what we already like. Author Eli Pariser developed the term “filter bubble” in his 2011 book of the same name to describe the process of how companies like Google and Facebook use algorithms to keep pushing us in the directions we’re already headed. By collecting our search, browsing, and similar data from our friends and correspondents, they give users headlines and links that cater to what they’ve divined as our preferences. The Internet, which gives us access to a diversity of viewpoints with unimaginable ease, in fact speeds our retreat into a confirmatory bubble. No matter our political orientation, none of us is immune.
Related
- Confirmation Bias
- Don’t let the Internet replace your firsthand experience of life, but do let it extend your experience - Douglas Axe
- How Powerpoint makes you stupid - Franck Frommer
- Problem not the view but the viewpoint
- It is good to know something of the customs of various peoples, so as to judge our own more soundly - Descartes