I remember back when the issue of filter bubbles started being a big deal, or at least started being a big deal in my circle of friends. In middle school we started noticing that on GMail, Google would place specific ads based on our emails or search history. Then Facebook started doing it a few years later, and now I guess everyone's doing it. I think the real concern with the idea of the filter bubble nowadays, a whole three years after Pariser's TED Talk, is that the filters really have kind of completely taken over the web.
Google uses your information to give you more options that are similar to what you already search, Facebook filters out posts that it thinks you don't have interest in, even on our smartphones there are filters set up that are made to pander to what an algorithm thinks we want to hear. This is different from a self-initiated filter, and concerning, because we have no say in the matter, or at the very least we're required to jump through a lot of hoops in order to disable this kind of filter. In the example of Facebook, Pariser suggests that we opt to keep our data private, but Facebook doesn't really want you to do that, and makes it kind of hard. I don't even think you CAN stop Google from customizing your search options.
The other problem with this kind of filtered society we live in is that it's almost a necessary one. In one of my other classes we've been studying the idea of a "participatory culture" on the web, meaning that everyone gets a chance to author and participate in the creation of information. This is largely a good thing, but at the same time, it's the root cause of the web filter mentality. If you have naught but intelligent, well-meaning friends on Facebook, then at the worst, Facebook is removing valuable and different opinions as Pariser stated in his own personal example. But let's look at the typical demographic of Facebook users. Most of them are teenagers, and they have a lot of friends. And I mean a lot. I doubt anyone actually has 500+ friends in real life that they care about and talk to, it's just not realistic, but lots of facebook users have incredible amounts of friends. Unfortunately, not all of those friends are going to have something interesting and important to say. In fact, I would be willing to bet that a large majority of them have pretty stupid, asinine commentary. Those people are ones I don't care about. I WANT their crap out of my feed. And there's the problem. In a web so over-saturated with meaningless information, we HAVE to filter to an extent or it's impossible to get any useful information.
As such, it very much falls to the user to keep filter culture from affecting their lives too greatly. The web can't change itself, at least not for one person, and so I think it's up to individuals to seek out their own information that might be filtered out. It's not the easy road, and in a perfect world, the filters set up would be sophisticated enough to filter information in a more meaningful way, but as it is, there's just no way to block all the crap as well as give you what you need but maybe don't want. Technology isn't that smart.
I really like your concept of 'filter culture' because it is so much more than just the filters of online content that create boundaries for social, personal and political contact, moreover what is seen as acceptable or respectable. In your closing few lines it seems like you might want to make a case for in the (near?) future the potential of a 'good' filter bubble that blocks out all the 'crap'. What would this look like? Or am I reading your post wrong? Keep up the great work.
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