Filter Bubbles - What we Want Vs. What We Need

Filter Bubbles

What is it?

A filter bubble is a result of a personalized search in which a website's algorithms guesses  applicable information to a user based on his/her past information ( location, click behaviors, search history,online purchases). 

A result from this is that users become isolated from the actual information they need and instead gets information based on their "culturalized" viewpoints .

As you see in the picture on the left hand side, a person currently interested in the political conflicts of Egypt gets different results compared to his friend who has not a clue about it.

Another Problem 

As our own filter bubbles becomes our own personal, unique resource of information online, we can't really see what information is getting processed in and what information is being left out. Furthermore due to the constant use of technology in recent years, it's harder to stop this problem due to the construction of major marketing schemes on the web. 

Netflix Figures Something Out

Netflix researchers were pondering why their queuing system had some movies zipping right up and out of their ques. They realized that some movies such as "Iron Man" zip right out while on the other hand " Waiting for Superman" can take a really long time before it pops up on que. 

According to researchers, they've concluded that that their is an "epic struggle" going on between our future aspirational selves and our more impulsive present selves. For example, a lot of us would want to be that person who have watched Rashomon, but as of right now we are more impulsed to watch the whole Home Alone Series because it's comedic.