This TED talk was given by Eli Pariser, and really it floored me a little. The idea that my facebook news feed is filtering out my Conservative friends because it knows on the political scale I'm to the left is astonishing. Well no wonder I'm baffled and confused by the Majority Harper now holds... I didn't see a single news story in Harper's favor... apparently google is filtering my news intake.
So what is the problem with catering to each interweb user? It does mean I get results that uphold my beliefs, generally something people like. But isn't that kind of like Brazilia for the Internet? Brazilia, the capital of Brazil, is a city built from a blueprint on a barren land, an architect's dream. Might at first seem like a wonderful idea where there are no nuances, no weird twists and turns, no one way streets. In fact, there's a whole road dedicated to the sale of lightbulbs, no shopping around town... all of the lightbulbs are on that street. Weird right? What is really means is no surprises.
Why do we need surprises? Well, it makes us more tolerable people. To grow up in Brazilia means you've never been lost or ended up where you never meant to go. When faced with difficult situations we gain character, the aspect of ourselves which is specific to the experiences we have had. Give everyone the same experiences, no surprises, no chance for growth and you have a self contained population which only has the opportunity to reproduce exactly itself.
More to the point of filtering the internet, without showing us opposing points of view, not only do we lose the chance to challenge our own view points, we lose the option of challenging other's beliefs as well. While we preach to the filtered choir, our cries for democracy will be squashed and silenced without our knowledge for we have rose colored glasses filtering out any challenge, surprise or opposing viewpoint.
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