My Personal Filter Bubble

Before this class, I had not heard about the filter bubble, and definitely had not thought about how my opinions can change the types of media that I see. Of course I had noticed medias like  Youtube and Netflix recommending videos or movies that are similar to other things I had recently watched. But, I had not thought about how the websites did that or decided what I would enjoy in the future.

Before going through my media feeds, I had to figure out what is my specific filter bubble. I am a female, meaning I should be less likely to see videos with cars or typical male stereotypes. Also, I am a democrat who watches many left wing tv shows, giving the assumption there should not be too many republican shifted medias. Also, I have a lot of tv shows that I follow, and am more likely to see things associated or closely linked to them.

After going through my medias, such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Youtube, I concluded that the internet definitely has honed in on my filter bubble. On Facebook, there is almost no republican media, other than friends that specifically post it, and there are many videos of left wing spokespeople or entertainers. But, there were few right winged posts partially because I have unfriended people in the past for posting things too often that differ from my beliefs. Not specifically because they don’t agree with me, more that I felt they were trying to convert others into agreeing with them, and I did not like seeing that on my feed. On my Pinterest, majority of the pictures were somehow related to my boards already created or things I searched for in the past. There were pictures from my tv shows, celebrities I liked, images I had searched for in the past, but overall did not show anything different from what I had already researched.

Overall, I have concluded that the internet/media companies are clearly collecting information about the types of media that we watch/read/search/want/don't want. Honestly, I am not happy with it, mainly because this feels like the first step on collecting information that should be left personal, creating the question: what information is actually a secret?