A recent article in The Observer on Sunday, reviewed the latest book by Eli Pariser, about his ever increasing fears of the manipulation of the Internet, specially Google and Facebook about the perdetermined choices that they continue to make for us - http://bit.ly/lkPwED
In his book 'The Filter Bubble' he explains how, "An invisible revolution has taken place is the way we use the net, but the increasing personalisation of information by search engines such as Google threatens to limit our access to information and enclose us in a self-reinforcing world view..."
It's certainly true that since th roll out of the Google serach enhancements that I feel myself being narrowed by the choices that Goole is making for me, based on assumption, previous searching and other online behaviour. Infact, Facebook is just as much in control, by the types of adverts I'm delivered, or the personalised views of friends news feeds. Surely, it should be my choice? It's just like having some pushy salesperson trying to sell you a product you know you really don't want, but in the end you just go along with it anyway.
And I guess that's the issue, do we just go along with this? We can't deny that the Internet plays a huge part in our lives now, but do we really want it to run and dictate our choices, what we do and not let us see the bigger picture. As Pariser says, I think that this does have repurcussions not now on a personal basis, but how this will effect our understanding of what all this means for our politics, our culture and our future.
I think this will be a very interesting read.
