This post is about my thoughts on a video of a TedTalk by Eli Pariser called Beware online “filter bubbles”. The video starts with Eli quoting Mark Zuckerburg when talking about newsfeeds “A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests than people dying in Africa”. This made me think about how people nowadays prioritise their own lives over others that may need to seek help. And because of this the internet has progressed to cater for our tastes. Depending on what you click on (cookies), it edits out the search results to what you want to see not what the rest of the world wants to see.
An example used within the talk is when 2 different people Google Egypt, one gets results relating to the Egyptian Crisis and the other gets holiday recommendations. This further proves the fact that the internet moves to show what we want to see, not necessarily what we need to see. Because of this, a filter bubble is created. And within that bubble is all of your preferences, with one catch, you don’t get to decide what is within the bubble. But also, you don’t see what gets edited out either.
Both the speaker at the TedTalk and I believe this needs to be changed somehow. Google needs to show you what you like to see, but also what you may not like as much to try and encourage you to step out of your searching comfort-zone. A reason this previously didn’t work was because the algorithm works based of what you click on first (which is normally the cat videos). Ideally, the algorithm will take some responsibility and make you slightly uncomfortable in order to highlight this important information to you. With this taking place, the internet can become even more inclusive and informational.
Lewis Mantle Fashion 