Have you ever been scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and seen an advert for something you were just talking about with your friends? Or for something you’ve been looking at buying for a while?
Every-time you do anything on the internet it is logged and remembered forever. Every post you like, comment you add, or picture you upload has an affect on what information is given to you on the internet.
Information is a process. Google gathers information about you based on what you search, then proceeds to offer recommendations. Websites also do this by using ‘cookies’. Cookies are little computer programs that websites put on your computer to track you and your searches.
Is this OK?
On the one hand I can see where it can be useful. For example you’ve been searching for a pair of new shoes for weeks but can’t seem to find the right one, a Facebook ad then pops up with the perfect pair. Or you search for somewhere to take your friend out for dinner one night and then discount code adverts seem to appear on every media platform. These are the occasions when it can be good, however can there be a downside to this ‘personalisation’ of news feed?
Take something like politics for example. This idea of social filtering can distort your views on which political party to follow. This filtering takes out the views of your opposition and just reinforces your own opinions.
What do you think about the ‘filter bubble’?
Rach's English Language and New Media Blog 
This is a really interesting blog post! I have definitely seen evidence of a filter bubble when it came to Brexit. Certain political party campaigns were either legitimised or delegitimised depending on our previous likes, our social filters (‘friends’) and technological filters- what we have searched up before. I think this also creates a certain amount of fake news stories because these algorithms generate the most ‘relevant’ information to us instead of the most accurate. Like you said, I think we can also deduct that our personal views are distorted from being in a filter bubble because the content that we have liked before etc is likely to reinforce our own cognitive biases. Therefore, I believe we should be cautious when finding information online.
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We know that filter bubbles are a problem, but what’s the solution? Once people become socialised into a political camp, it’s hard for opposing information to weaken their allegiance. In fact, exposure to contrary facts or opinions is likely to make them hold even more strongly to their original views (this is called the ‘backfire effect’. I’m reading an interesting book now by Ezra Klein called Why We’re Polarized, and his explanation is that politics is no longer about opinion–its about identity. We hold on to our political opinions because they have become so tied up with other aspects of our identity such as what we eat (vegan or fish and chips?) and where we shop. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Were-Polarized-Ezra-Klein/dp/147670032X
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