A TED presentation by Eli Pariser. I knew that Chinese authorities exerted control over search results from Google and other search engines, but it turns out that ALL Google search results are being manipulated based on who and where you are! There are long-standing debates about whether society as a whole is losing perspective as media become more narrow and specialized. Wholesale filtering of search results is much more pernicious and therefore much more dangerous. His Egypt example is pretty scary. Brings new meaning to the word “cocooning”!
“What we’re seeing is the passing of the torch from human gatekeepers to algorithmic ones.”
He uses the apt metaphor of the balanced information diet and the difference between what we want to see versus what we need to see. It would be nice if in addition to “I’m Feeling Lucky” Google gave us a button to “Give It To Me Straight!”
Update: There has been much criticism of Pariser after I posted this. It appears that he may have exaggerated how nonporous these “bubbles” are. So apparently we still have the good old, leaky Internet we’ve all come to know and love. 🙂
