. Last tended to <ahref='https://code.incremental.social/thepaperpilot/pages/commit/9aa6bf46bfd132527bed478007a37223f4f29de6'title='Thu Nov 28 22:01:32 2024 -0600'><timeclass='dt-updated'datetime='Thu Nov 28 22:01:32 2024 -0600'>2024-11-28</time></a>
.</span></p><hr><details><summary>Referenced by:</summary><ahref="/garden/digital-locality/index.md">Digital Locality</a><ahref="/garden/objectivity/index.md">Objectivity</a></details><p>Filter bubbles refer to how users may be intellectually isolated as a result of <ahref="/garden/social-media/">Social Media</a> with algorithmic feeds, coupled with things like personalized search engine results and other services catering to someone's existing preferences and world views.</p><h2id="are-you-in-a-filter-bubble"tabindex="-1">Are you in a filter bubble? <aclass="header-anchor"href="#are-you-in-a-filter-bubble"aria-label="Permalink to "Are you in a filter bubble?""></a></h2><p>Absolutely, and without a doubt. Filter bubbles fractal inside each other, and most of them are entirely innocuous - they're not the scary boogeyman they've been portrayed as. If your search results are primarily English - you may be in a filter bubble. If the news you watch covers domestic issues within your country more than domestic issues in other countries - you may be in a filter bubble. If the local news you watch covers the weather in your local area but not in areas halfway across the globe - you may be in a filter bubble. These are not significantly contributing to the "intellectual isolation" filter bubbles are said to create, and no one is arguing we must be equally aware of the local weather across the world.</p><p>So yes, you're in a filter bubble - likely many, even. But that's not the right question to be asking; We must delve deeper into filter bubbles' causes and manifestations to determine what their negative aspects are and ultimately how to fix them.</p><h2id="filter-bubbles-in-search-engines"tabindex="-1">Filter bubbles in search engines <aclass="header-anchor"href="#filter-bubbles-in-search-engines"aria-label="Permalink to "Filter bubbles in search engines""></a></h2><p>The author of The Filter Bubble describes what is supposed to be a <ahref="https://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2010/10/the-filter-bubble/181427/"target="_blank"rel="noreferrer">chilling story</a> of a search for BP giving results on investment opportunities to one person, and news about the oil spill disaster to another. They posit this is indicative of a problem, but I question that the personalized search results did anything wrong here. Searching BP just by itself is a "neutral" search, and so I think its fine for it to have shown results based on what its learned that user usually looks companies up for. The implication is that the former is an individual who regularly searches companies to see their current investment opportunities, and got what they wanted. If this person were to suddenly want to, say, write a report on BP's history or ecological impact, they'd naturally search for something more specific than just "BP", and certainly find the results they're looking for. And of course, there's layers to this - Google is also figuring out what search results the average person usually wants when searching a given term, and ranking those higher. So the more people search for BP to get info on the disaster, the more prominent that disaster will be.</p><p>The problems stem from the various biases we all bring with us when researching anything, whether we're in a filter bubble or not. In this regard, filter bubbles are just automated applications of our own biases. For example, if you're researching the impact of the BP ecological disaster, your pre-conceived notions over its impact - and perhaps your personal financial interests - will dictate which sources you read at all, or ultimately decide to reference or ignore when discussing the issue with others. And to be clear, <em>all sources</em> will have a bias. There is no such thing as <ahref="/garden/objectivity/">Objectivity</a>, and even seemingly "neutral" outlets are implicitly defending the status quo of society.</p><p>I think most of you may relate to this, becaus
