The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Lots to think about in this challenge to a personalized web experience. I have seen the author's TED talk, and brought this subject up to students in my classes. Why is it a big deal if the web morphs into a reflection of my interests? Is it because of the commercial factors? Is it more divisive political feelings? Is it a throwback to very partisan local newspapers? Maybe a little bit of each. Pariser has gotten me to think what it means to type thoughts and ideas on a computer and hope/expect people to read them vs. having actual conversations and being resilient to different points of view. I don't know - rambling now, but I'll keep this book in mind when thinking about privacy and where we might be headed with the personalized web of things. This is a very interesting/important book. However, it probably would've made a better long-read article or a few more books. Pariser follows some tangental ideas (without fully flushing them out with any real argument) that would've been more suited to different books. That being said, the central thesis here is important and worth reading/thinking about. Pariser's account of internet personalization and filtration is very one-sided, but that didn't really bother me...he mentions some benefits and they all seemed pretty obvious and clear - the unintended (or very intentional) negative repercussions were more interesting to me.
What do You think about The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You (2011)?
This is one of those books that everyone should read.
—bree
Enlightening information for the novice
—ekeneosinubi
