Personalization and information filters can impact us in many ways, simply by allowing less access to information can change perspectives. Pariser not only addresses how your identity shapes your media, he also considers how media shapes identity. In his book, The Filter Bubble, he considers this connection a flaw, suggesting that it encourages self fulfilling identities. Our identities can be manipulated unkowingly with information that is specifically targeted in a purposeful manner. Pariser adds, "the Internet's distorted picture of us becomes who we really are." If the previous is true, it is a cause and effect relationship in which the media is the determining factor.
Professionally, personalization can have certain consequences. Yochai Benkler is referenced by Pariser supporting the idea that "more-diverse information sources make us freer". A filter bubble impedes this open flow of information. Recognizing that information is filtered has allowed me to reflect and reconsider the content I am presenting to students. Is the content promoting cultural awareness? Does it provide various perspectives on the topic? Are there a variety of topics being presented? Each of these questions is important when considering whether the content is presenting a world view versus an individualized view. When information is filtered students may lose the opportunity of encountering diverse ideas and as Pariser mentions, this is a cause for not developing the skills of flexibility and openness when we encounter differences. He also includes, "But perhaps the biggest problem is that a personalized Web causes us to spend less time in discovery mode in the first place." I, as a teacher must facilitate and encourage these discoveries. These discoveries would benefit students greatly, as Pariser points out, making a connection to Benkler's idea on autonomy, "You have to be able not only to do what you want, but to know what’s possible to do."
On a personal level, professionally, a filter bubble limits what I can encounter on the Web. It can limit my connections and perspectives, which is what I transfer to students. Narrow mindedness could be a result of exposure to similar information. Personalization is based on limiting information, as a result, it can limit a person intellectually. In fact, Pariser would agree, he states, "Because personalized filters usually have no Zoom Out function, it’s easy to lose your bearings, to believe the world is a narrow island when in fact it's an immense varied, continent." Becoming aware of this filter bubble can be a motivating factor for attaining varied information. It could also be a motivation to present diverse ideas purposefully to students.
References
Pariser, E. (2011). The filter bubble. New York, NY: The Penguin Press.
Your insight into what filtered content means to you as an educator is powerful. I agree that by analyzing the content our students will be exposed to, and by answering questions such as the ones you posed, our students will be able to gather ideas from a diverse world view rather than a sheltered individualized one. I also agree that it is awareness that will bring about the change. Awareness and active resistance to personalized “bubble” learning will allow educators and their students to break out of the filter bubbles that entrap current ways of thinking.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me wonder about institutional filter bubbles. On my home computer, it is easy for me to notice trends in what I am seeing, based on what I know I have recently searched for. What about on shared computers, like the ones students use at school? Whose filter bubble do those computers reflect? I find I have more questions than answers as I work to finish reading Eli Pariser’s book.
I think you are completely right about the power that personalization has on limiting our view of the world on the Web. What’s nice for us is that by taking this course we’re a little more enlightened about personalization and the affects it can have on us so we’re more cautious but for students it can be limiting. This is definitely something that I need to take into consideration as a future educator. Students do run the risk of losing out on information because of personalization but I think even more disturbing is they run the risk of viewing the Internet as their only society. According to Scott Heiferman, the founder of MeetUp.com, “’People are more magical than iPads! Your relationships are not media. Your friendships are not media. Love is not media’” (Pariser, p.187). This kind of takes me to back to one of my earlier posts where I said something along the lines that the Internet is this wonderfully brilliant technology that we’re just squandering with social networks cute pictures of animals. Are our future students going to do more with this technological gift? Pariser continues to say that, “Evangelizing this view of technology—that it ought to do something meaningful to make our lives more fulfilling an to solve the big problem we face—isn’t as easy as it might seem” (Pariser, p.187). Is this because of personalization or is it because people don’t want to?
ReplyDelete