Reading The Filter Bubble- Part 3

“Advertars” are one of the most fascinating forms of advertising in that they seem to say more about the company exhibiting the display than they do the target audience. More importantly, these artificial social media profiles give us a glimpse into what the people personalizing our lives think about us. Advertars are basically the same ads we see everywhere wrapped up together wearing a human mask. In order for someone to admit one of these into their virtual lives the mask needs to be convincing, so Advertars become what they think we will like, essentially giving us a convenient list of what personalization algorithms believe we are.

It is advantages like this that lead me to believe less in the gloom and doom aspect of the filter bubble. Yes, it can be a very dangerous thing that has the ability to shrink someone’s world to an alarming degree; I fully admit the potential threat. There is also a deceptively easy way to get out of it; search for something other than your usual, go a few pages into the results and choose the information you are looking for instead of the information that is first handed to you. If these personalization algorithms operate on click signals, it seems very unlikely they would simply stop processing those signals and forever send you the same media experience personalized for the person you were. If these algorithms are indeed currently processing everyday online actions, then changing the signals that are processed would then change the resultant experience. Personalization is not static; the average person’s wants, whims, and desires are constantly shifting. This means that, in order to be personalized, your online environment needs to shift along with you.

I’m not saying that there aren’t people stuck in filter bubbles, of course there are. Confirmation bias is something that can make one feel comfortable and validated in their ideals, which makes a filter bubble look all the more alluring. This is not, however, a new concept; it is simply an aspect of human behavior that is now seen in context to the internet. Humanity has always found a way to practice confirmation bias, regardless of the existence of the internet or social media. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said; “Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are approaching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party.” If you remove the word ‘Christianity’ and substitute ‘News’ or ‘Social Media’, the point still stands. There are, and probably always will be, people who just want to be right.

This does not, however, mean that everyone behaves this way. Human curiosity is endless, and for every person content to stay in their filter bubble, there is another yearning to expand their world.