Filter Bubble (Techopedia)

A filter bubble is the intellectual isolation that can occur when websites make use of algorithms to selectively assume the information a user would want to see, and then give information to the user according to this assumption. Websites make these assumptions based on the information related to the user, such as former click behavior, browsing history, search history and location. For that reason, the websites are more likely to present only information that will abide by the user’s past activity. A filter bubble, therefore, can cause users to get significantly less contact with contradicting viewpoints, causing the user to become intellectually isolated.
Personalized search results from Google and personalized news stream from Facebook are two perfect examples of this phenomenon.

2 thoughts on “Filter Bubble (Techopedia)

  1. shinichi Post author

    Filter Bubble

    Techopedia

    https://www.techopedia.com/definition/28556/filter-bubble

    What Does Filter Bubble Mean?

    A filter bubble is the intellectual isolation that can occur when websites make use of algorithms to selectively assume the information a user would want to see, and then give information to the user according to this assumption. Websites make these assumptions based on the information related to the user, such as former click behavior, browsing history, search history and location. For that reason, the websites are more likely to present only information that will abide by the user’s past activity. A filter bubble, therefore, can cause users to get significantly less contact with contradicting viewpoints, causing the user to become intellectually isolated.

    Personalized search results from Google and personalized news stream from Facebook are two perfect examples of this phenomenon.

    Techopedia Explains Filter Bubble

    The term filter bubble was coined by internet activist Eli Pariser in his book, “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You” (2011).

    Pariser relates a case in which a user searches for “BP” on Google and gets investment news regarding British Petroleum as the search result, while another user receives details on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for the same keyword. These two search results are noticeably different, and could affect the searchers’ impression of the news surrounding the British Petroleum company. According to Pariser, this bubble impact could have adverse effects for social discourse. However, others say the impact is negligible.

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  2. shinichi Post author

    Filter bubble

    Wikipedia

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble

    A filter bubble or ideological frame is a state of intellectual isolation that can result from personalized searches when a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user, such as location, past click-behavior, and search history. As a result, users become separated from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, effectively isolating them in their own cultural or ideological bubbles. The choices made by these algorithms are only sometimes transparent. Prime examples include Google Personalized Search results and Facebook’s personalized news-stream.

    The term filter bubble was coined by internet activist Eli Pariser circa 2010 and discussed in his 2011 book of the same name. The bubble effect may have negative implications for civic discourse, according to Pariser, but contrasting views regard the effect as minimal and addressable. The results of the U.S. presidential election in 2016 have been associated with the influence of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, and as a result have called into question the effects of the “filter bubble” phenomenon on user exposure to fake news and echo chambers, spurring new interest in the term, with many concerned that the phenomenon may harm democracy and well-being by making the effects of misinformation worse.

    Technology such as social media “lets you go off with like-minded people, so you’re not mixing and sharing and understanding other points of view … It’s super important. It’s turned out to be more of a problem than I, or many others, would have expected.”

    — Bill Gates in 2017

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