This video definetly shed light on a topic I was very unaware of that was occurring so commonly amongst everything. It does make you think there are many pieces of information we are missing out on because of these “filter bubbles”. I recall a time when I and my friend searched something up and we got two completely different results so this does explain why that occurred. I’ve also realized that I’m definitely trapped in this “filter bubble” scene since my youtube recommendation page is only what I searched previously or anything related to those topics. There was this other time when I tried to find evidence for an essay I was composing, but all the “resources” were known websites that I always go to but weren’t what I was looking for. These filter bubbles definitely are restraining people or “gatekeeping” from the knowledge they should be shown. Typically these” filter bubbles” show what they think you would like compared to what you should know.
Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 18)
The idea of a filter bubble is certainly not a foreign one to me, and I am definitely aware of the bubble that I am in although it takes a different form in my case. My primary source of news is reddit. It’s also my general source of entertainment for when I need it and it’s also a place where I argue about politics a lot. My feed is largely filled with left leaning and democratic political subreddits, and that’s by my own design. I’ve chosen to subscribe to those feeds and not other feeds, and as a result I rarely will see something from the other side. Rather than a bubble being formed involuntarily by an algorithm filtering based on my interests, it’s me directly choosing what I want to see and creating this bubble around myself.
This situation is very common on reddit, and it’s not limited to individual users either. Subreddits are controlled by moderators who enforce rules specific to each subreddit, and as a result these subs often become bubbles of their own wherein the idea of the moderators are enforced.
The key difference between filter bubbles and the bubble which I have chosen to create for myself, the most harmful difference, is that people within filter bubbles are often not aware of it. I am aware that I’ve created this bubble for myself, and as such I can acknowledge that the bubble is harmful and go out of my way to find ideas that clash with my own and understand them. For people within bubbles without their own knowledge, many will not have that insight into the situation. For them, their source of information has simply grown more pertinent to themselves, and they grow more trapped within the bubble with no real reason to leave it because what they find inside the bubble is what they want to see.
What I learned from this TED talk is what it means to be in a “filter bubble”, at first, I didn’t understand the topic, but the final conclusion at the end sealed the deal for me. The internet is not bringing us together, discover new ideas or give challenge, we get something that gives us all the answers and can take us away from the real world. Technology is moving at a very fast pace, and while making the new iPhone is cool, we have lost the purpose of a phone and other electronic devices. Back when phones were new to the scene, they were used for communication between people, allowing us to talk with someone from far away. Now, phones have a bunch of apps that distract you and we ignore the true purpose of a phone, making us lose connection of the real world. Hopefully, people start seeing the path that technology is taking, and to learn the true definition of why we use technology, as worded in the TED talk by Eli Pariser “We need it to connect us, we need to give us new ideas, people and different perspectives, but it’s not going to that, if it leaves all isolated in a web of 1”.
