#filterbubble

Blog 2/16

If someone yells into an echo chamber, but no one hears it, does it still create polarization?

The article “Filter bubble,” by Axel Bruns, claims that echo chambers and filter bubbles are not as significant in creating polarization as people think. “The myth of the filter bubble,” above all, “is one thing: a big misunderstanding.” Misunderstanding continues to circulate in public debate, and scholars push back against it by pointing to studies that claim to debunk it.

New media and communication technologies have always undergone a process of individual adaptation and social construction; while not neutral, the technologies and their providers are neither inherently good nor evil in this but can be employed by their users to serve socially and societally beneficial as well as disruptive ends.

The article “The echo chamber is overstated: the moderating effect of political interest and diverse media,” by Elizabeth Duboisa and Grant Blank, also focuses on echo chambers with a more specific focus on politics. They also claim not to find significance in echo chambers when looking at the entire multi-media environment. The studies show that partisan echo chambers among politically interested could contribute to a growing gap in knowledge between those who are politically interested and those who are not. Greater interest in politics and more media diversity reduces the likelihood of being in an echo chamber. However, the high-choice environment also allows individuals, including those who are politically interested, to consume a wide variety of media, which could lead them to more diverse content and perspectives.

The article “When Birds of a Feather Instagram Together: Debating the Image of Islam in Echo Chambers and Through Trench Warfare on Social Media,” by Zeynep Aydin, Albrecht Fuess, Marcel Förster, and Thijl Sunier, shows that echo chambers do exist and how they can impact large groups of people. This study proves that not only do echo chambers exist within the #CharlieHebdo discussion online, but they can transcend multiple countries.

While echo chambers are built based on political views or personal interest, it is trigger events such as terror attacks that reinforce these filter bubbles. Tweets and likes by “cybermobs,” boost negative sentiments like anti-Muslim hostility and can finally lead to real-life targeting of Muslims.

While it could be argued that the “dank memes” modularity class is relatively low, considering that one user has posted most of the posts, this might not qualify as echo chamber behavior. However, the fact that there are many posts with these specific hashtags and because the individual posts are findable and offer a place for comments to be made qualify this hub as an echo chamber behavior and perhaps an echo chamber in itself.

Despite what data has been shown in studies, I believe that echo chambers and filter bubbles are major reasons for increased polarization. I understand that people have to intentionally seek out information online and that algorithms are not responsible for what people put in them to how the end results. However, whether users intentionally try to see reflective content or not, applications will show them what they “like” to try to keep them on the platform longer.

I used Google to better understand how to escape Google’s filter bubble. Wrap your head around that. I wanted to know if there was easily accessible information, provided by Google, about how to avoid falling prey to their algorithmic search tampering. 

The term “filter bubble” was first coined by Eli Pariser in his 2011 book The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. In his book and Ted Talk, Pariser uses the example of asking two different people Google searching the same word at the same time and getting completely different and diverging perspectives. In his Ted Talk, he told the story of how he had two friends both search the word “Egypt.” One of his friend’s feeds was almost completely news about protests and other relevant, world information. The other friend had no news, but simply tourism and fun fact information. 

So, who do companies like Google tailor information in such a way? The purpose of Google’s filter bubble is “providing and consuming content that is closely aligned to your preferences results in the creation of a bubble or chamber, restricting your view of the wider picture.” Using your personal data, including location, device, search and click history and other information, Google edits and tailors your search results to show you what they believe you should want to see most. Every Google user, logged in or out, experiences these algorithms. So how do we get around these? How do we avoid being exposed to this Google-tailored version of reality? 

So, as I would do with any other question I have, I Googled it. And I learned a lot.

Logging out and clearing your history and cookies will not protect you as well as I would have thought. Even doing both of those things and using an incognito or private browser will not completely hide your activity or keep you safe from the algorithm. Simply using your IP address and location, Google still subjects any and all searches to their own “internal bias.”

Unfortunately, Google is everywhere. Escaping their filter bubble is made even more impossible by the fact that Google is not the only website that employs these tactics. Facebook slowly edits out or hides posts from friends and pages you interact with that you are less likely to interact with. Yahoo! News curates their news results based on what they believe you are most likely to click on. 

Clicks are money, and these companies are trying to rake it in. By showing you a curated list of content you are likely to click on, these internet companies are simply trying to set themselves up for success. The continual improvement of algorithms and websites is important because it is how companies keep us coming back. Updating websites for stickiness and speed is exactly how users keep wanting to come back. 

Since avoidance seems impossible, awareness is the next best thing. As informed readers, we must take it upon ourselves to search for diverse information and points of view to escape our own filter bubbles. Interacting online with others who have differing viewpoints is important in making sure that we are challenging our own biases... and popping our Google filter bubbles as well.