The (social media) algorithms look at what individuals like, and then feed more of the same back to them. In the process, individuals begin to move, without noticing, into bubbles which isolate them from enormous amounts of other information. They only hear and see what they like, and the news feeds increasingly exclude anything that might challenge people’s pre-existing beliefs.
The liberals were outraged by Trump, but when they expressed their anger in cyberspace, it had no effect, because the algorithms made sure that they only spoke to people who already agreed with them.
I’ve lost count of the number of democratic decisions across the world in recent years which have totally floored me. I guess this is at least partly because everything I had seen online leading up to them had given me the impression that the vast majority of the population felt the same way i did and would vote accordingly.
This is a great documentary (I haven’t linked to the trailer because it’s deceptively bad) which looks expansively at the events of recent decades to trace the origins of the current political and cultural climate. It’s one of those rare film experiences in which it’s possible to emerge full of genuinely interesting information you didn’t possess before :-). (British viewers can watch it free on BBC iplayer for the next year)
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