Filter Bubbles and Invasive Weeds: What Can’t We See in #Rhizo15
At first when I heard and read the week 5 prompt I said,
wow, okay how do you tackle something like this? But in true rhizomatic fashion
the idea or at least a way in presented itself in those hours where you wake up
for no good reason at night and think.
I have always been fascinated with the concept of filter
bubbles and algorithms. If you have not seen this TED talk by Eli Pariser you
should here. What he argues is
that whatever previous choices that we have made, changes what we actually see
on the Internet. It is similar to the experiment one FB user did by “liking”
everything and how it in turn made their FB a mess. Lisa Hubbell
(@lisahubbell) mentioned filter bubbles as well in our Google video chat with Aras (@arasbozkurt) and I think it is a valid point to bring up here.
This may be not about us, this may be out of our control.
That there things that are being actively hidden from us by the machine, by our
previous choices. So this may mean that there seems to be a subset of usual
voices the keep appearing over and over again, because the system has been
gamed that way.
Sarah Honeychurch (@NomadWarMachine) is one of those #rhizo15 participants who has done an excellent job of reaching
out to many many participants and thus her web of connection is large and I can
only assume her filter bubble is low. I try to tweet and engage as much as I
can but my work during the day takes priority (gots to pays the bills) so I
often miss huge chunks of content and ideas from 10-5pm EDT. I try to go back
and catch up but again my bubble is such that no matter how I TRY to game the
system I still see the same voices. I know there are others, but sadly they
seem to be buried or lost to me thanks to algorithms who think for me (they are
like the annoying paperclip from Word).
I know for a fact that the feed I see on Twitter using the
app on my phone is not the same as the feed I see when I use my laptop. So what
does this mean bigger picture? It means that the thing that connects us and
allows for this rhizomatic learning experience is also the thing that is stifling
the true extent of that learning. I’d like to argue that the algorithms are the
invasive weeds it’s not an innate hive mind; it is algorithms that create
echo-chamber effects. Maybe the only true way to get around this is to have a
hybrid learning experience where there is a combination of tech contact like
Twitter and F2F expansion of those ideas with colleagues, students etc. This
therefore creates a more holistic learning experience. It would create a true
ecosystem that works beyond tech barriers that could perpetually spread
outward. It would also take accessibility into account for that learning would
be accessible to those who may have economic or digital literacy barriers to
online engagement- therefore a learning experience premised on ethics and
inclusion.
That’s my two cents for this week anyway…
I love the point you are making re the tech being part of the echo chamber effect and you are right. We need to think of this as some of us work through Actor-Network Theory. I have to disagree re f2f - the barriers to meet f2f are much bigger don't you think? Like impossible? And if we limit it to ppl meeting others within an x-mile radius thst would a. Create more sub-communities and b. Force u to work w ppl who arbitrarily live near u but may hav different interests.oh wait, that's called life :) haha
ReplyDeleteThanks for making me think and your ideas will play in my head all day now!
Hi Maha, Yes you are right for sure it makes things more geographically tethered but I like the fact that no algorithm is telling me who I should be interacting with, or is it? We create communities where we can in general I think, but these communities should have some spill over and not remain in one venue in order to truly grow. Think of the joy (or awkwardness) of meeting someone at a conference whom you have corresponded with via Twitter for years. (Ask @readywriting how awk I was when I met her a few years ago, lol)
DeleteI know. Tech can be infuriating - I get frustrated with Twitter on my phone in the evenings because it is nigh impossible to keep track of conversations, and I try to spend a quiet 15 minutes first thing in the morning at my PC. About the F2F - Maha - do you think that we could include Skype and Hangouts in that? Actually even emails - there's lots of tech where we can control the filter.
ReplyDeleteI think there is definitely room for Skype or hangouts AND yes email. You know sometimes I think we forget how good email is as a community builder. We spend so much time complaining about how many emails we get, how people don't know how REPLY ALL works, how we want to reach inbox zero, that we forget that email actually can connect us better, ON OUR OWN TERMS, than any other tech sometimes!
DeleteOffline we are filtered too, not by algorithm but information is filtered sometimes through people and even our concious and unconscious social biases may mean we filter those voices without knowing it. We are maybe just like the machine, just authors of own our filtering algorithms. ;)
ReplyDeleteoohhh, Angela, I like this! It is almost Borg like... yes we have our own ego filters as well, our biases...our prejudices. Excellent point!
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