Reading The Filter Bubble- Part 2

          The more I read, the more society’s filter bubble problems seem to be a sort of curse of convenience. In a world where an online identity is completely made up of wants, the trend seems to be towards instant gratification and away from awareness, curiosity, and discovery. I start to think of the movie Wall-E and the people in their floating chairs that don’t bother to move because they have perfected the fulfillment of want to the point where should is no longer desirable and therefore no longer relevant. This personalization epidemic seems like such a selfish affliction created simply because people are smothering themselves with their own desires for convenience and immediacy.

            Pariser’s attitude towards those trapped in filter bubbles seems to be that of a shepherd towards a wandering flock. He is genuinely concerned about and interested in the status of modern society online; his work is a gentle wake-up call and warning to many people (including myself). In talking about problems and solutions of the filter bubble, however, he seems to illustrate every person in possession of an online account the same way. Pariser speaks of filter bubble occupants as a mass or flock that have been lead down a dicey path and need to be escorted in a different direction. He is not incorrect or mean at all in this view, but it does reveal a certain lack of faith in the individual to break free of these bubbles. I’d like to have more hope in humanity’s general competence level than that.