Yolo everyone. It’s been a really long time since my last blog post.
Partner’s Screenshot My Screenshot
Definition of filter bubble: It is a result of personalized in which a website algorithm selectively considers researcher’s favortism by his or her habits.
Each country is selective toward the information on internet because some knowledge might be politically, diplomatically, and domestically insulting to itself.(In Taiwan google engine, you will rarely see news about that “Taiwan is not a country” unless the keywords you type are meant to find that kind of information!) That is the “biggest picture” I understand in this filter bubble project.
Taiwan Flag by Connie Ma via Flickr CC BY 2.0
That is what you search for Taiwan…
OK, I am getting kind of patriotic and political, sorry about that…
Anyways, why should we be concerned with Filter Bubble?
As mentioned before, there is some sort of bias in searching engine, and bias eliminates some crucial information. Therefore, when doing an academic research or other things, it is highly possible that some useful websites will be blocked from a country’s searching engine. (Ex: Learning physics with Khan Academy blocked…) I believe that filter bubble is an unnecessary blockade that disables people, especially people from different communities, to understand one another’s local customs because it limits limits one’s research to a really small range. The creation of internet is to let people be connected with the world, not to narrow our minds within a small space without even realizing its occurrence. As the Ted Talk said, we are a global citizen, hence we have the obligation to recognize new people, to learn new perspectives, and to be open-minded.
Globalized by Melissa Marques via Flickr CC BY 2.0
We are a part of world, not a part of computing algorithm.
Comparison with My Distant Partner’s Results
My first research and my partner’s first research had similar results.(First two websites happened to be identical, and my partner’s third result, Wikipedia, was also in my top ten lists) Despite using different engine and having different searching behaviors, my partner and I had pretty much same searching results. (Probably because we are similar!)
I would say that personal habits do affect the searching result,(my partner’s third result is different than mine) but sometimes it does not really matter.
Conclusion
Despite saying all these negative things about filter bubble, it does have advantage- the algorithm at least chooses information that a researcher prefers to have. The bias created by filter bubble is the bias that a researcher either accepts or prefers. On the other hand, filter bubble is also dangerous because it happens without permission(The system automatically selects things for a researcher), which might make one less connected with current affairs and possibly become close-minded. There are two sides to a coin!
(By the way, I did not take the screenshot of searching results using different country codes because it is pretty much the same.)