Filter Bubble!

I learned a new expression.  The idea is not original, but the label is.  A filter Bubble is when you go on Google, or say, a Facebook, and request information. These entities of social media present you with choices.  Great you think, but the results they offer are not what you think.  You are getting answers based on your past preferences.  In other words, if you lean towards the right and love Hannity or O’Reilly, based on your past requests, you’ll get answers that are similar with those philosophies.  It’s doubtful you’ll get Rachel Maddow’s opinions.  Hence, the bubble that you’re in has filtered the information fed to you.  Some might think this is great because they don’t have to weed thru unwanted info that only espouses ideas they loathe. But that’s fine if you’re a non thinking person.  That’s fine if you don’t want choices and you want other sources to make them for you.

 

Did it ever occur to you that when you get too much information from one source, you in effect become brainwashed because you don’t have alternate opinions to counterbalance those you think you like?  In effect, you abdicate your ability to compare because you signed on to the managed news that you had no idea was being foisted on you.

The result is that you then fall into the filter bubble where everything that comes before you is biased.  This is a subtle news management tool.  You’re not controlling the input but some other source is.  Did you ask for this response?  Or did you believe you were getting something else?  Or maybe you like the non threatening aspect of staying comfortably in your bubble?

From Eli Pariser, (check the link) author of The Filter Bubble:  "In the filter bubble, there's less room for the chance encounters that bring insight and learning.  Creativity is often sparked by the collision of ideas from different disciplines and cultures.  Combine an understanding of cooking and physics and you get the nonstick pan and the induction stovetop....... a world constructed of the familiar is a world in which there's nothing to learn.  If personalization is too acute, it could prevent us from coming into contact with the mind-blowing, perception-shattering experiences and ideas that change how we think about the world and ourselves."

So the next time you’re waiting in a doctor’s office, or another similar situation, pick up a magazine, but one you wouldn’t subscribe to at home; not to mention one you wouldn’t even pay for.  But by exposing yourself to the thoughts of others whom you wouldn’t normally associate with, you are at least hearing another view.  

Now that’s just one side of the benefits.  If you’re a sports jock you would likely go for the sports, hunting, mechanics, or maybe finance magazines.  How about picking up that copy of Family Circle, Glamour Magazine, Time or Newsweek?   But if you go straight for the People Magazine, find something else; a senior citizen’s read, a science magazine.  The point is, whenever the time you’re in an environment that you find yourself waiting; read something out of the ordinary and start breaking thru the bubble.

Always talking about the same thing becomes boring to a listener, particularly when you can’t offer a reply to some criticism, but parrot the response that you’ve heard told by others.  Now you’ll have your own agenda and talking points.  Absorbing information that doesn’t fit a particular mold enables one to cross reference ideas.

The only reason why scientists are making inroads as to who really “discovered” America is because archeological findings are matched with ocean currents for plausibility, DNA findings, agricultural similarities, language, or skeletal remains and so on.  One person sitting in their closet thinking the Jews discovered America and a Cherokee (or one like that) tribe in Ohio claims heritage to the Jews would go unchallenged unless people were thinking out of the box, out of their filters---the same with political ideas, new inventions or discoveries.

So certainly you can take a few moments or whatever and as infrequently as you let it happen, get out of your box.  Get out and think about what we have in common with our neighbors and how can we make it better.  Think about our common Human Universals, our common genetic makeup and practically the same blood that runs thru us all.  It might even mean skipping the weekend tenets of the biggest filter bubbles of all---religion. Take a day off---you’ll be here the next day and won’t be any less the follower for it; but maybe a more understanding person---not a zombie in a filter bubble.

No Flies !