Should Social Media companies burst filter bubbles?
“Red, White & Untrue: Politics, Governance, and the Future of Democracy (as We Know It)”
I feel that if social media companies were to burst filter bubbles there would be a lot of controversy on what they can and can’t see. Since filter bubbles are like our own personal universe on the internet, the content shown reflect what we like and want to see. However, there would still be posts, images and videos that may be boring to others, offensive, and/or uncomfortable. An example of this would be on Instagram’s popular page. The popular page is made up of the users interests. Instagram then takes this data and shows us what we think want to see according to our previous likes, encounters and search history on the app. Now if Instagram were to take that away from the application, the user wouldn’t be exposed to different aspects or genre of media. Though, there is the possibility that what the user might find could become interesting to them and decide to follow a specific account. A situation like this where the user finds something new that they’ve liked would be a good thing and could add more significance in their life. For instance, a user is exposed to a form of contemporary art on Instagram. Since they have never witnessed accounts such as this before, the user then becomes inspired by what he/she sees and wishes to try to create their own work of art. Ultimately, this adds more culture into their life and could possibly create a new passion for them.
A situation where the breaking of the filter bubble would have a negative outcome would be due to the overall complaint by a large number of users. Users would be disappointed by the fact that they are seeing things they don’t want to see. Furthermore, being a parent and knowing their kids are on social media and don’t have control over what they are shown could lend to some upset. Kids start using social media applications such as Instagram/Facebook/Twitter at a very young age. If these kids were exposed to inappropriate content at that young of an age, it could possibly affect the way they behave, depending on what they see. However, a way to fix this would be adding an age restriction or having a safe account where posts are appropriate for kids at that age to see. Conversely, having there be no filter bubble, overtime the popularity of the application could decrease due to lack of a personal space where the user can feel at home and control things they want to see.
Although there are good points whether or not social media companies should burst filter bubbles, I feel that they should keep them in tact because people like to have their own personal space on the internet. If they were to take away our personal bubble on the internet, it could lead to a whole mess of issues concerning personal rights. Although, the example from the TED Talks shown in class about the Red feed Blue feed made some good points concerning Facebook taking away posts and others perspectives on topics. There are other alternatives to finding out things that we don’t normally see and feel we need to see. You can easily search up what you are missing and control your Filter Bubble.
