Death by Algorithm, where has my information gone?
What is a filter bubble? A filter bubble is where large organisations use AI/predictive technology to show you information that is based on your historical usage, communities, interests or profile. This means your search engine or news feeds will only show you information that you would be interested in or that may align with your particular point of view. I know what you must be thinking, what is the problem with that? As Mark Zuckerberg has said:
“A squirrel dying in front of your house maybe more relevant to your interests right now than children dying in Africa” — Mark Zuckerberg, 2009, Facebook.
Personally, I find this disturbing, but it does bring to mind how the giant tech companies are showing you personalised and targeted content, solely to increase their ad and user revenue streams. Yes, having content tailored to an individual user can be epistemological as Simpson (2012) evaluates. What if you needed to see a more critical view of the world. Would you want to see all the information available to you, even if you don’t agree with it? I know I do. There are a plethora of search engines out there that can help you search for content that is not based on your personal information. If we could roam in and out of our own personal internet bubbles… why not use this to our advantage?
Coming from a digital media background, hyper-personalisation is a big buzz word that aligns perfectly with “user engagement”. Companies not only want to know who you are but where you are, what device you are using and mostly they are interested in your buying behaviour in real-time to create a contextualised service. I mean with only 8 seconds to capture the attention of an audience this is putting pressure on companies to deliver hyper-personalised goods and services. According to Accenture 75% of buyers are more likely to purchase based on more personalised content. This is an attractive number for companies when trying to increase their bottom line.
However, I find this alarming, what are the effects of personalisation for our future? When I read the news, I like to know the news I’m consuming is holistic, accurate and based on facts. What I found about our consumption online:
“roughly 40 percent of respondents discover news through search engines, approximately 33 percent via social network sites, and about one-in-eight through news aggregators (Newman et al. 2016)”
Roughly 40% of users are consuming content that is aggregated, curated and personalised. This is deliberately done to show consumers information based on their online behaviour (Haim, Graefe & Brosius, 2018). I cannot deny that search engines are a vital tool in the western world for gaining access to information, and during major events, search engines are an important web tool to find out more information about what is going on. Ørmen, J (2016).
If I were to visit a city, I’d want to immerse myself in its history, food, and culture. I’d like the same with my online content too, please!
