It's wild to think that due to these bubbles, my internet is not the same as yours. It sometimes shocks me to see, for example, a homophobic post on my Facebook feed. But then I remind myself that I'd made a point of trying to get to know people from different walks of life with different worldviews. We may be, indeed, trapped in our bubbles, but we can make an effort to peek out.
Yes, we can peek out - but the algorithms are doing their part too. In a sense, I agree that it is wild - but think about how the world was before the Internet: We would hear different gossip, read different newspapers, etc., and our understandings of the world and life in it would be just as different then.
A big problem with the Internet - and social media especially - is that our world-views can be manipulated by unknown people or even AIs. We saw this some years ago when a Google search would give different results for different people and, hence, not really deliver what Google then promised: the best fit for your search expression. Since then, Google has stopped promising anything - as everybody knows now that it gives you the search results that Google think that you should have, no matter your search expression. And, you and I will get different results.
It is a bit like what I tried to describe in the article about writers' communities, that the world has become too big. We cannot be everywhere, cannot take in all information. And this is then leading to ourselves making choices, but also to others seeing how their choices on our behalves can be beneficial to them (read: how they can make money on us).
I understand. My father-in-law still buys different newspapers to get a full(er) perspective of an issue. But even back in the day (I grew up during that very weird transition of no Internet to the Internet. I got the Internet in high school, but I still used a physical encyclopedia to do homework), our bubbles existed. Maybe it was not as blatant as today, but your friends were probably people from certain social circles, or you guys shared the same religion, or you played the same sports or something like that. You and I would never have met. So, if we keep an open mind, it's (in a way) easier today to meet people with different worldviews than yours. That doesn't change the fact that Google plays with our minds. It does. But it's also not impossible to search for an argument that is opposite yours, not in countries with unlimited internet access. I just think the easier connectivity can be used to broaden our perspective if we try a little. That's how I got to know the person who holds very homophobic views.
I totally agree. There's a thing that anecdotes cannot be taken as a true/reliable source of information. It's even a logical fallacy. A bubble amplifies precisely what an anecdote does on individual level. If you enter another person's bubble, it might be a totally different world, something you might even get scared of.
Scared - and confused. There have been written many stories about people who wake up one day and find that life around them has been replaced with a different one. A popular theme because it really pushes our emotions - it scares us. Social media adds such a dimension to our lives.
An anecdote is a good analogy - our bubble is some kind of story we are told and telling ourselves about our lives - like an anecdote.
It's wild to think that due to these bubbles, my internet is not the same as yours. It sometimes shocks me to see, for example, a homophobic post on my Facebook feed. But then I remind myself that I'd made a point of trying to get to know people from different walks of life with different worldviews. We may be, indeed, trapped in our bubbles, but we can make an effort to peek out.
Yes, we can peek out - but the algorithms are doing their part too. In a sense, I agree that it is wild - but think about how the world was before the Internet: We would hear different gossip, read different newspapers, etc., and our understandings of the world and life in it would be just as different then.
A big problem with the Internet - and social media especially - is that our world-views can be manipulated by unknown people or even AIs. We saw this some years ago when a Google search would give different results for different people and, hence, not really deliver what Google then promised: the best fit for your search expression. Since then, Google has stopped promising anything - as everybody knows now that it gives you the search results that Google think that you should have, no matter your search expression. And, you and I will get different results.
It is a bit like what I tried to describe in the article about writers' communities, that the world has become too big. We cannot be everywhere, cannot take in all information. And this is then leading to ourselves making choices, but also to others seeing how their choices on our behalves can be beneficial to them (read: how they can make money on us).
I understand. My father-in-law still buys different newspapers to get a full(er) perspective of an issue. But even back in the day (I grew up during that very weird transition of no Internet to the Internet. I got the Internet in high school, but I still used a physical encyclopedia to do homework), our bubbles existed. Maybe it was not as blatant as today, but your friends were probably people from certain social circles, or you guys shared the same religion, or you played the same sports or something like that. You and I would never have met. So, if we keep an open mind, it's (in a way) easier today to meet people with different worldviews than yours. That doesn't change the fact that Google plays with our minds. It does. But it's also not impossible to search for an argument that is opposite yours, not in countries with unlimited internet access. I just think the easier connectivity can be used to broaden our perspective if we try a little. That's how I got to know the person who holds very homophobic views.
I totally agree. There's a thing that anecdotes cannot be taken as a true/reliable source of information. It's even a logical fallacy. A bubble amplifies precisely what an anecdote does on individual level. If you enter another person's bubble, it might be a totally different world, something you might even get scared of.
Scared - and confused. There have been written many stories about people who wake up one day and find that life around them has been replaced with a different one. A popular theme because it really pushes our emotions - it scares us. Social media adds such a dimension to our lives.
An anecdote is a good analogy - our bubble is some kind of story we are told and telling ourselves about our lives - like an anecdote.