Ted Talk- "Filter Bubble"

Ted Talk- “FIlter Bubble”

Watching the Ted Talk while in class made me realize how much the internet is altered for every person. I never really thought that anyone could have this much control over the public. Like the speaker in the video, my friend and I did our own experiment to see if different things would come up if we both searched the same thing. We both searched “Italy”. My page had one tourist website then went straight to world news articles about Italy. My friend’s search consisted of all tourist websites. I did not think it would actually happen, but I was actually true. I have noticed ads from  shopping websites I go on pop up while on Facebook or other websites, but I never really thought much of it. It makes me wonder how much information I miss out on when I do research things on the internet. I liked how towards the end of the video the speaker called on the Google executives and other officials to use all the power that they have to help the internet. The speakers example about the liberal and conservative friends really struck a chord with me. He wanted to learn knew things from his conservative friends and I feel like in a democracy we listen to everybody but with “filter bubbles” we can not since everything is blocked off so we can only see views like ours or needs like ours. Everyone wants to discover new things and ideas while searching the internet, but it can not be done if it is already altered and new ideas can not really be discovered. The executives should expand our “filter bubbles” so that they are non-existent.  His example about how the internet thinks it knows what we want to see, but I don’t even think we really know what we want to see. We look at the internet as a way to share ideas, solve our answers, or just look for inspiration. With the internet so filtered or personalized for everyone’s needs we can not look at is at the same anymore. We have the right to be able to see and control what goes in and out of our “filter bubbles”.