Personally, I was completely unaware of my filter bubble before the lecture in class. I do see a good amount of articles and content that is outside of my belief system, so I never really thought about the fact that things are being filtered out of my feeds.
I was aware that Google changes results by person, which is just as concerning as it is convenient. One day, my friend and I were going to meet at a coffee shop. We googled the same place, and I found the shop no problem. My friend was coming from out of town and was not a coffee drinker, and she could not find the place anywhere on Google. I ended up having to send her the address because she couldn't find it. I thought it was crazy that we didn't have the same search results. After that, I realized everything we Googled would bring up different answers.
I rarely unfollow people for their opinions on certain subjects, unless they are extremely offensive or downright stupid. I think it's important to see something from every angle to really understand it. I don't think it is beneficial to filter out everything you don't agree with because that makes you a very one-dimensional person. I will say that I do follow people I tend to agree with simply because I enjoy reading their content.
Overall, I think the filter bubble is a very dangerous concept. Without challenging viewpoints and constructive argument, our society is going to be even more divided. We are already experiencing a pretty significant political gridlock, and filtering out opposing views makes it that much harder when you encounter them in real life. I think it would be appropriate for Google and every other platform who use this algorithm to seriously re-think the repercussions of the filter bubble.
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