My Filter Bubble

I am information hoarder. I can spend days together researching on one thing till I get the answers I am looking for. When I heard about this website Upworthy from one a friend, I went into research mode because these guys were doing something different and interesting. The more I read about them, the more I got engrossed. The website is known for perfecting the art of baiting users into clicking on their posts. Most of the news or any interesting things that I find are inevitably through Facebook (the last few being AIB and the Bugle podcast). Now, the art of “baiting” comes from the ability of the post to attract the user to spend their precious ADD brains on something for more than 10 seconds. I liked the idea even though their it sounded like yet any other internet marketing stunt.

I found out that one of the founders of this website wrote a book called ‘The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You’.  It was right up my alley after reading Cypherpunks. So, I downloaded the book onto my Kindle but never got around to reading it. Last week, I was out of fiction reads so I stumbled on this book by accident while flying back to Mumbai from yet another client visit. I was not expecting much because I did think the people who made this deck would write a rather thought provoking book. Boy was I wrong. I was intrigued from the first page and I couldn’t put it down.

The premise of the book is “internet personalization” - all these websites like Google, Facebook collect data about you and use it to define you to personalize your experience. Google uses 60 different triggers — the brand of your computer, your location, your occupation — to determine what search results will be most relevant to you. Because the more relevant your search results are, the more you use their product, and the more data they can collect on you to provide you with the most targeted advertisements possible. We are what we search became their motto.

I read about the Google personalization part while I prepping for an interview for Google (which I bombed) but never gave it much thought. I was ambivalent towards it. I liked the way I don’t have to wade through hundreds of results to find what I am looking for. If the search is more personalized, I would be able to find more relevant data much faster. i was happy that I dint have to the 10th page to find what I was looking for. I never did think about the flip-side to such filters. The book made me realize what was happy behind the screens while I was happy about my search results. 

The first thing that the filter bubble could affect would be our online experience. Whenever I use like Google and Facebook; I am often not a consumer. Rather, I am the product. I am being sold, and I am therefore not totally in control of my online experience. They are trying to manipulate me into clicking on a particular link based on my likes/dislikes. A few months ago, I sprained my knee while jogging, so I went on reading about this and found that a particular Nike shoe is very helpful. I searched for the shoes and found it to be too expensive (~9K for a pair of shoes). For the next month or so, every website I go to I used to find banners of these shoes.  I finally gave in and bought the shoes when they were giving 50% discount. I totally caved but how could I not when they keep flashing these things to me every time I am online! (I can justify my purchase but that’s beside the point)

Second issue is one with personalization. I noticed was that my Facebook wall has more entries from Refinery29 and Indie-wire rather than my friends/colleagues.  I stopped being active on Facebook sometime last year and whenever I did go on to the site I generally clicked on the website links rather than personal links. So, my FB feed is evolved to the stage where the people posts are minimal. I did not know when a few of my friends shifted their jobs/got married because I dint get the notification. Today, I am very versed in those areas that I have interest in because these are the things that I find on FB because it adapted itself based on my habits. I can talk about feminism, travel, photography, books, movie festivals, technology start-ups but when it comes to politics or economy I am clueless. I am not saying that Google or Facebook is responsible for my lack of knowledge but I am saying they are enabling this behaviour.

A third issue that the filter bubble could affect is how we interact with each other. I already depend too much on my laptop/Kindle/Phone for communicating with others. They give me a false sense of security. I am way too dependent on technology to maintain my social relationships. I have more friends outside India than in Mumbai. The internet has helped maintain my relationships with people spread across the globe but in effect my world has become much smaller. When I want to try some thing new, I am always looking to find similar books, similar movies or similar friends. I don’t think I have spent time with someone outside of our comfort zone voluntarily in the past year. I hate it when I have to do that. I would rather read a book than try to start a conversation with a stranger on the metro. I have moored myself in this physical bubble of my house. I buy my clothes, groceries, gadgets online. I use home deliveries for food. If I do have to go out I generally pick somewhere walkable which reduces the number of interactions that I have to have. I don’t think I have talked to my neighbours in the last three apartments I lived in. I don’t even know their names.

The book is alarming yet informative. It made me think about things that I take for granted. It’s not a manifesto in any way but it does paint a picture of how our lives will be if we let this be. I cannot recommend this book enough.