Beware of Internet Filter Bubbles

[Valin]

Ricochet:

Denise McAllister

5/27/13

 

A healthy warning about information gathering on the internet is coming from an unlikely sourceEli Pariser of MoveOn.org. He helped develop phone-banking tools and precinct programs in 2004 and 2006 that laid the groundwork for Obamas web-powered presidential campaign. Pariser is also a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and author of The Filter Bubble, which exposes how personalized search might be skewing our worldview.

 

I recently listened to a TED talk Pariser did a couple of years ago about online filter bubbles, and it put the low-information voter in a new context for meits not just that voters arent interested in finding out whats going on in the countrytheyre not getting access to the information in the first place, because its being edited out by algorithms based on personalized interests.

 

Pariser explains that the internet is supposed to be a tool to bring people together, that it can be great for democracy as new voices are heard and different ideas shared. But he says theres been a shift in how information is flowing online, and that its invisible. He also warns that if we dont pay attention to it, it could be a real problem.

 

(Snip)