The Filter Bubble

Let’s start with something familiar and straightforward – the Filter Bubble. In 2005 Google launched the personalized search for logged-in users. This meant that if you were logged in, the search engine would remember what you are searching for, analyze it and then customize all of your subsequent searches. That means that topics of no interest to you will be deprioritized and end up way down in your search results. This, in turn, had an interesting side effect – all ideas that did not align with things you were already searching for would not be presented too, and you would be unlikely to get any contradicting information allowing you to correct what you already think you know.

The Filer Bubble goes beyond search. Have you noticed that on YouTube after watching a few videos of a particular type, you get more and more suggestions for similar videos? There is nothing nefarious here; all they are trying to do is keep you on the site longer, so you can see more ads, however, it does have interesting side effects. Now, consider the same pattern with social media like Facebook and Twitter. What we saw with searches for particular information now becomes equivalent to isolating particular topics and discussions.

Later in this series, we will look at what Echo Chambers are, so we will not dwell on it here.

In a way, the Filter Bubble shows you only the things you are already interested in and filters away everything else by deprioritizing it to the point you will not see it. As an added effect, it makes the things you are interested in even more important – first – subconsciously, because you are constantly reminded about them, and second, by making them occupy dominant space in your online canvas. This effect is also known as Agenda Setting, and we will cover it in the following blog.

Recomended Reading

Samuels, M. G. (2012). Review: The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You by Eli Pariser. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 8(2). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8w7105jp