The World Is A Bubble: Hyperlink Report
In The Filter Bubble, Elis Pariser explores the reasons behind why the age of the internet is separating humanity into individual bubbles based on the information we receive. As president of the MoveOn.org board, Pariser spearheads a “nonprofit organization focusing on education and advocacy, providing civic engagement tools to the public, and building the progressive movement by encouraging and supporting the development of more grassroots leaders.”
Being that he is in this position, I would consider Pariser at least semi qualified to discuss the issue of meaningful viral content. However, it wasn’t until I found out that he is also the Chief Executive of Upworthy (a website that focuses on just that) as well as an internet activist. Pair that with the fact that he has a Goodreads Choice Awards nomination for Best Nonfiction, and Eli Pariser seems pretty qualified from where I stand.
The Filter Bubble acts as a physical manifestation of Pariser’s activism. He writes in a relatable yet intelligent tone that appeals to people of all ages in the digital world. Because of this, I found it incredibly easy to understand his point of view and even become a serious fan of his opinions.
The book’s front cover reads, “How the new personalized web is changing what we read and how we think” (cover). And this is a topic that is absolutely addressed within the pages. With Pariser’s book, you are getting exactly what you ask for and more. He talks about the internet in both terms that I hadn’t before considered and terms that I had. It was informative, entertaining, and validating – some of the most important qualities of effective literature.
For the purposes of this post, I wanted to focus on my favorite chapter of the book – Chapter 2: The User Is the Content. This chapter initially stood out to me because of the title. If a casual internet user were asked about the content of the internet itself, he/she/ze would likely respond with names of social networking sites, titles of articles, and website URLs. But what if that’s wrong? What if we’re all wrong?
While, yes, those things might be (partially) true for us as average interneters, I had not considered the fact that we are not the only ones using the internet. It seems obvious now that I type it out loud, but think about it. Do you ever consider big businesses in your definition of internet usership? Do you ever think about the fact that those websites you visit are using you just as you use them? While you’re (I’m) reading societally relevant articles (shopping for lipsticks), the people behind the website (Urban Decay) are also looking you over.
Pariser discusses this, and more, in this chapter. He points out the fact that this very process of mutual online shopping is weeding out a vast majority of information that may actually be relevant to you. If it’s been a while since you’ve clicked on a Time Magazine article since you’ve been spending most of your time on Netflix (admit it, no shame), the internet is going to notice. You’ll see more adds for online streaming services and little to no political news wherever you go.
found this on Twitter -- it's funny but it's not
Don’t believe me? Emory’s online student portal is called OPUS. There’s also a risk management company called OPUS. Guess who accidentally clicked on the wrong URL one too many times and now can’t get away from ads about making my business better… Yep. Guess who also did nothing about it.
Periser argues that “when it comes to persuasion, passive is powerful” (68). Why? Because just like me, you won’t do anything about it either. You’ll scroll through Instagram and see an advertisement for something that you think is totally normal because you’re super into medieval live action role play right now. But it’s not a normal add because it was hand picked, chosen just for you. And it’s effective as hell because you’re going to passively scroll past tons of ads just like it be reminded every ten minutes that yes, you do actually need a new set of chainmail armor. Tracking technology that companies are now using allows websites to put information in front of you that you willingly scroll by. So yeah, passive is pretty powerful.
Beyond the fact that you’re only seeing things the internet thinks you want to see at a given moment in time, that also means that you’re not seeing a multitude of articles, opinions, points of view that you potentially could be exposed to if you weren’t tracked and confined to what the internet thinks you want to hear instead of what you should hear. It’s unlikely “that we’ll come to be close to people very different from us, online or off” (66).
Listen, it’s not just on the internet that we are being isolated from different opinions and cultures. We need to be aware of the bubbles that we physically live in as well. In the digital age, our online presence is a large part of our human (if we are even still that) presence. We spend so much time on the internet that we take time from the real interactions that would give us this otherwise sheltered flow of information.
And that’s not it. The internet allows for the public existence of literally all of our opinions. Ever. This article is proof in itself. I didn’t have to write this; I don’t have any overwhelming qualifications that make me more insightful than anyone else on the blogosphere.
~ Just you know “blogosphere” is a real word now. I was fully expecting it to be underlined in red, but it’s not. Just think about that for a second. Anywhooo… ~
Maybe that’s the problem? Take a seasoned journalist for example. Someone who has degrees upon degrees in mass communication, media outreach, research, and more. While I may be on my way to those accolades, I’m definitely not there yet. But the internet and the ability to put my voice out there regardless of my aptitude lets me discredit someone who has miles more experience than I do.
In the words of my new role model Eli Pariser, “More voices…means less trust in any given voice” (64). There are more people out in the internet to discredit everyone else so who can we really trust? By unknowingly hiding behind this filter bubble, we think we are controlling who is lying to us but, honey, we’re not. We’re just controlling how uninformed we are. The more we filter through these opinions and tell the algorithms who and what we want to read, the more we are clothing ourselves in ignorance.
Just in the cover of the book itself we begin to see the point. The bright red cover catches your eye but the startling chunks of white that seem to be covering up words really disarm you. Already just by looking at the cover you feel like you’re missing information. And you are.
So where do we go from here? Well I think Pariser has started the end of this personal bubble by simply talking about it. We are all so excited about the internet and its power to help the common man and connect us the world over but in every good, there is an evil of some capacity. At first it seems helpful, innovative, sweet even and then out of nowhere releases an album on the anniversary of Kanye’s mother’s death. I think we all know what I’m trying to say.
The internet is basically Taylor Swift.*
*Nowhere in The Filter Bubble does Eli Pariser suggest that Taylor Swift is behind internet turmoil. This is me unable to control my own obnoxious sarcasm.
