This article doesn't really have a lot of meat to it.
Despite that, I am very skeptical of the filter bubble idea and especially as it relates to customized internet search results. I found Eli Pariser's book to be very unconvincing. It is full of qualifiers like "might," "could," and "may" and few hard facts.
To a degree we have always been in some kind of bubble because we aren't omniscient. Before electronic media, our knowledge of things outside our immediate circle was very limited. Was that a filter bubble? During the heyday of newspapers when a city had multiple newspapers there would be explicitly liberal and conservative newspapers (growing up my hometown newspaper was the Republican!)
I feel like now I know a lot more about people who disagree with me than I ever did. I may not understand them but I know that Trump supporters, flat earthers, creationists, anti-vaxers, and people who care about sports all exist.
Despite that, I am very skeptical of the filter bubble idea and especially as it relates to customized internet search results. I found Eli Pariser's book to be very unconvincing. It is full of qualifiers like "might," "could," and "may" and few hard facts.
To a degree we have always been in some kind of bubble because we aren't omniscient. Before electronic media, our knowledge of things outside our immediate circle was very limited. Was that a filter bubble? During the heyday of newspapers when a city had multiple newspapers there would be explicitly liberal and conservative newspapers (growing up my hometown newspaper was the Republican!)
I feel like now I know a lot more about people who disagree with me than I ever did. I may not understand them but I know that Trump supporters, flat earthers, creationists, anti-vaxers, and people who care about sports all exist.