Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"
Eli Pariser is the chief executive of Upworthy - a website that aims to promote "meaningful" viral content. He gave a TED talk in 2011 that warns about the dangers of "filter bubbles" caused by increasing tailoring and personalisation of web content based on our search patterns and other information. Google, Yahoo News, Facebook and news sites all use algorithms that filter the information we see, so that we end up seeing what the algorithm thinks we want to see, rather than what we need to see. Pariser explains that this could result in us only seeing "information junk food", rather than having a balanced information "diet".
The talk is fascinating and made me aware of the fact that these algorithms are shaping the way each of us sees the world, which is an alarming thought!
No comments:
Post a Comment